Rumours of a remake of Patrick McGoohan's classic 1967/68 tv series The Prisoner have been circulating for many years, all of which proved to be unfounded. However, the new series is now definitely on, co-produced between ITV Productions, Granada International and AMC, the US cable network behind the critically acclaimed Mad Men. Starring Jim Caviziel (Passion of the Christ) as Number Six and Sir Ian McKellen (X-Men) as Number Two, the six part mini-series begins filming in August in Africa and is expected to premiere worldwide early in 2009. (More info at AMC's official blog: http://blogs.amctv.com/the-prisoner/)
In response to the news of the new Prisoner series, I've produced a one-off Prisoner cartoon (shown above) exclusively for the upcoming Prisoner convention PM2008 at Portmeirion, North Wales (the original location for the Sixties series). The original A4 sized artwork will be auctioned off on the day.
As with the three previous annual "PM" events, PM2008 will feature guests from the series interviewed on stage, plus screenings of related tv shows by official permission of Granada. As a bonus, this year, Fox have given official permission for a screening of The Simpsons episode "The Computer Wore Menace Shoes" which features a Prisoner parody and includes Patrick McGoohan voicing a reprised role as Number Six.
Speaking of the man himself, although Patrick McGoohan never attends Prisoner events he has kindly donated two autographed photographs for the PM2008 auction. All profits from the event go to a very worthy cause: the Hope House Children's Hospice. So far, over £2,700 has been raised by previous "PM" conventions and The Prisoner News Website, The Unmutual.
The series' aspects of individuality versus social control have always intrigued me since I first saw the original series of The Prisoner as a child 40 years ago. I later parodied the show in several of my comic strips, the most prominent being a Combat Colin serial (Prisoners of the Place of No Return) in Marvel UK's Transformers No.244 to 248 (1989). Part one of which is shown here:
The serial appears in full (retitled Village of the Doomed) in the trade paperback Brickman Begins available from me at http://brickmancomics.tripod.com/.
If you're interested in The Prisoner old and new (and any breaking news on the new series) and you'd like to bid on the cartoon at the top of this blog entry (or any other items at the event), make your way to Portmeirion on Sunday July 13th. If you can't get to the event you can place a bid online before the convention.
Full details of PM2008 including the ticket price and timetable of events can be found here:
http://www.theunmutual.co.uk/pm2008.htm
Items in the auction
http://www.theunmutual.co.uk/pm2008auction.htm
To bid online see contact details here.
The Prisoner News Website:
http://www.theunmutual.co.uk/
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