Remake of The Prisoner to Air on AMC

After forty years, AMC is remaking a six-hour version of The Prisoner, the late Patrick McGoohan’s clever, libertarian, metaphysical, TV mini-series. With the ominous rise of statism and collectivism now in the United States and elsewhere, this program could not be more timely in addressing such issues as privacy and government surveillance, propaganda and mind control, de-humanization and individual rights, modernism and objective truth, good and evil, justice, and much more. To be aired in November 2009, the program stars Ian McKellen as Number 2 and Jim Caviezel as Number 6.

With the enormous success of ABC-TV’s program, Lost, that draws upon such themes in the timeless work of such writers as C.S. Lewis (e.g., The Silver Chair, That Hideous Strength, The Great Divorce, etc.) (see here, here, here, here, and here), The Prisoner similarly explores profound metaphysical and ethical issues sure to capture a major audience. We can only hope that the new series remains true to the themes McGoohan embedded in the original. Here is the preview:

Number 2: “Be seeing you, Number 6.”

Number 6: “I am not a number, I am a free man.”