Future Direction in Hugh Jackman's career

[jo]

Are they referring to the above as "the blockbuster doubleheader in Las Vegas next season" ... or is that a year hence?

If this March --
It does seem too close for Hugh Jackman to prepare for a halftime act, as it is already Feb 22, 2024.

Jo

[njr]

Well, Taylor Swift flew from Japan to Las Vegas and made it to the Super Bowl in time to see her man, Travis Kelce and the entire game, so maybe Hugh could pull it off!

Nancy

[jo]

"to prepare for a halftime act"

[jo]

In his younger days, rugby player Hugh Jackman ( front row)

Feb 23, 2024 17:33:57 GMT -5 jo said:

JoAB
@joab46466753
·
1m
Replying to
@joab46466753
@realhughjackman
and 2 others

Your rugby-playing days?

[jo]

Not sure if this is confirmed... but 2 social media accounts are reporting it.

Sounds like a quirky movie with an English flavor. We read that Hugh was meeting with a director when he was somewhere near London before he returned to the USA after his Dublin trip -- so maybe it is something he wanted to explore?


www.blogdady.com/hugh-jackman-lands-new-movie-role-in-which-he-solves-murders-by-talking-to-sheep-2/#

Hugh Jackman lands new movie role in which he solves murders by talking to sheep

By BLOGDADY.COM -March 6, 202401


Hugh Jackman lands new movie role in which he solves murders by talking to sheep


If you thought Emma Stone’s Poor Thing was the weirdest movie of the year, Hugh Jackman’s latest could rival it.

The Greatest Showman actor is set to sign up for Three Bags Full: A Sheep Detective Story, we can exclusively reveal.


Emma Thompson is also in talks to star in the film, a big-screen adaptation of German Leonie Swan's novel Three Bags Full.


Hugh will play the role of an Irish shepherd who is murdered. . . All he had to do was for his flock to take on human nature and become detectives, trying to find out who killed him.

And if you’ll excuse me, that detective Ewedanit is none other than a sheep called Miss Marple.

Sources say Emma Thompson is also in talks to star in the film, which is a big-screen adaptation of German Leonie Swan’s novel Three Bags Full.

A source said, “Three Bags Full is being made into a movie, and Hugh is in the process of signing on to play the lead role.”

“The story follows the murder of shepherd George and his flock try to figure out who killed him before telling his widow Kate.

“Hugh has been approached to play George and Emma has been signed on to play his wife.

“It sounds corny, but it’s a great book and would translate well to the big screen.”

If the sheep say so. . .

Hugh will next be seen in theaters playing the Marvel character Wolverine in the latest film in the series.

“Deadpool & Wolverine,” in which Hugh’s good buddy Ryan Reynolds, who took over as Mickey, will reprise his role as Wade Wilson, will be released on July 25th.

Hollywood star Hugh Jackman was spotted walking by a canal while on holiday in the UK – thanks to a doorbell camera
Ryan confirmed he had finally finished filming in January, posting a photo of himself in the Deadpool suit for X.

He wrote next to it: “The suit hides the blood. I sweat a lot…But today, after watching ‘Deadpool,’ I’m almost in tears.

“Thanks to the cast and crew of this film, who fought wind, rain, and strikes, and Hugh Jackman to become an eternal giant… All under the strong leadership of Shawn Levy. ”

Given how good the first film was, fans will probably flock to see this one, even if it doesn’t feature a bunch of crime-fighting sheep on a farm.

[jo]

Maybe one of the reasons why Hugh may be signing up for this quirky-sounding movie -- is the chance wo work with one of the best English actresses, Emma Thompson. Academy Award winner and so many other accolades.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emma_Thompson


Jo

[jo]

The book is an international bestseller and very highly-rated.

Here's a description from Amazon --

Books
three bags full


Three Bags Full: A Sheep Detective Story

Three Bags Full: A Sheep Detective Story Paperback – June 3, 2008

by Leonie Swann (Author), Anthea Bell (Translator)
4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 533 ratings 3.7 on Goodreads 13,379 ratings
See all formats and editions


INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • A witty philosophical murder mystery with a charming twist: the crack detectives are sheep determined to discover who killed their beloved shepherd

“Delightfully different . . . The combination of sly humor and naiveté makes this novel a surprising and refreshing read.”—Boston Globe

“Swann produces a clever spin on the ol’ whodunit . . . the result: a delightfully offbeat yarn.”—Entertainment Weekly

On a hillside near the cozy Irish village of Glennkill, the members of the flock gather around their shepherd, George, whose body lies pinned to the ground with a spade. George has cared for the sheep, reading them a plethora of books every night. The daily exposure to literature has made them far savvier about the workings of the human mind than your average sheep. Led by Miss Maple, the smartest sheep in Glennkill (and possibly the world), they set out to find George’s killer.

The A-team of investigators includes Othello, the “bad-boy” black ram; Mopple the Whale, a merino who eats a lot and remembers everything; and Zora, a pensive black-faced ewe with a weakness for abysses. Joined by other members of the richly talented flock, they engage in nightlong discussions about the crime and wild metaphysical speculations, and they embark on reconnaissance missions into the village, where they encounter some likely suspects. There’s Ham, the terrifying butcher; Rebecca, a village newcomer with a secret and a scheme; Gabriel, the shady shepherd of a very odd flock; and Father Will, a sinister priest. Along the way, the sheep confront their own all-too-human struggles with guilt, misdeeds, and unrequited love.

With sheer wit and spunk, this international bestseller has become a darling to two- and four-legged fans alike. Funny, fresh, and endearing, it introduces a wonderful breed of detectives to American readers.

[jo]

Reviews of the book from the UK --

www.amazon.co.uk/Three-Sheep-Detective-Mystery-Large/dp/0739486365/ref=sr_1_1?crid=OMRVNJFFW7WR&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.C4zXVSBpaj5mPKrGCdlyYGCbMuJdcW6gprJ4GaoC_Pw.r19n5RHUtkZAWSDnykC9bzqtJdLVsy8WgP0hvOv-QQc&dib_tag=se&keywords=three+bags+full+a+sheep+detective+story&qid=1709687813&s=books&sprefix=three+bags+full+a+sheep+detective+story%2Cstripbooks%2C259&sr=1-1

[jo]

I wonder if this is voiceover work for Hugh?

[jo]

More information on the book -- per Wikipedia.

Three Bags Full

Hardcover edition
Author Leonie Swann
Original title Glennkill: Ein Schafskrimi
Translator English: Anthea Bell
Country Germany
Language German
Genre Detective novel



Three Bags Full: A Sheep Detective Story (original German title: Glennkill: Ein Schafskrimi) is 2005 novel by Leonie Swann. It is a detective story featuring a flock of anthropomorphic Irish sheep out to solve the murder of their shepherd. Written originally in German, the novel became an international bestseller, and has been translated into more than 30 languages.[1]

Plot and characters



Plot

In the Irish village of Glenkill, George Glenn is a shepherd who is a loner, estranged from his wife, and is fond only of his sheep. Every day, after he lets them out to graze, he reads to them from romance adventure novels and textbooks on sheep diseases. At the start of the book, the sheep find George dead, pinned to the ground by a spade. The rattled sheep decide that they must find his killer. This turns into a difficult task, as sheep can’t talk to people; and though they understand the human conversations they listen in on, like the one between George’s widow Kate and Bible-basher Beth Jameson, they do not always understand the details. Not even the smartest of them, Miss Maple, Othello and Mopple the Whale, can understand the humans' behaviour, and are particularly confused by the neighbourhood priest, though they conclude that his name is evidently God. They are afraid to confront suspects like butcher Abraham Rackham, and are suspicious but fearful of their new shepherd Gabriel O’Rourke, who is raising a flock of sheep for slaughter. And even after a series of providential discoveries and brainwaves reveals the answer to the mystery, they still have to figure out how to let the humans know.

Characters

Sheep

Miss Maple: Known as the smartest sheep in Glenkill, she leads the investigation into George's death.

Sir Ritchfield: Head ram, sometimes seems to have a wandering mind. Forgets things easily especially when worked up over something.

Othello: The literal black sheep of the flock, is somewhat mysterious. He hasn't been with the flock long, and hints at a dark and troubled past.

Mopple the Whale: A merino who remembers everything, and likes to eat.

Zora: A pensive black-faced ewe with a weakness for clouds and abysses.
Melmoth: Sir Ritchfield's long-lost twin brother.



Humans
Below is a list of notable human characters and their roles. Contains plot details.

George Glenn: Is the shepherd of the flock. He is lonely, depressed, suicidal and feels lost. George is married to Kate and has a mistress, Lily. George has an adult daughter, Rebecca; but he has no relationship with her. Before his death, he wrote a letter to Rebecca. George is a drug trafficker. He uses the sheep as mules to transport marijuana. Unlike the townspeople, George is not interested in expanding the tourist market in his town of Glenkill. With his friend Ham the butcher, George discovered the dead body of McCarthy.

Kate: Once caught in a love triangle between George and the butcher Ham, Kate married George. She gained weight after marriage. Ham continues to love her and pine for her.

Beth Jameson: A devout Christian who lives alone. Beth tells Rebecca that George was never her boyfriend. She left Glenkill for a mission in Africa; and, when she returned, everything had changed. An anxious woman, Beth smells bad to the sheep. After George's sheep reenact his murder at the Mad Boar Pub, Beth speaks to the audience and reveals that George came to her before his death. George told Beth his plans of suicide. After his suicide, Beth drove the spade through his body, as George requested.

Abraham Rackham (Ham): the local butcher and one of George's few friends. Together with George, he discovered the body of McCarthy. Ham loves George's wife, Kate, and installs cameras at his shop so that he can record the moments when she visits his shop. One misty day after George's death Ham tries to steal a sheep from George's flock, falls off a cliff and is paralyzed.

Father William: The sheep name Father William 'God.' He sees the sheep around town and in his church conducting their investigation and becomes very fearful of them.

Inspector Holmes: An ineffective investigator. He does not solve George's murder case, or the McCarthy murder case.

Gabriel: A shepherd with a flock of sheep raised for mutton. George's sheep like him at first and consider him to be a good shepherd, but learn that he is not a very good shepherd. Gabriel is motivated by money.

Josh Baxter: The landlord of the Mad Boar pub. Josh Baxter is interested in expanding the tourist trade in Glenkill because he will benefit financially.

Tom O'Malley: An alcoholic who finds the dead body of George the shepherd. During the smartest sheep contest, Tom is drunk and correctly understands that George's sheep are acting out his murder.

The 'Master Hunter': This character is never named by the author, or the human characters in the story. The sheep recognize his smell and call him the master hunter. He may be involved with drug trafficking.

Rebecca: George's daughter. Her mother is not revealed. She volunteers to take the flock of sheep to Europe and because the sheep choose her over Gabriel, she inherits the flock and shepherding duties. Before his death, George sent her a letter. She intentionally delayed a reply and regretted that decision after his death.



Themes

Largely humorous in character, the novel displays a strong knowledge of sheep behavior, biology, husbandry and breeds (the merino and hebridean are present, among others).[2][3] Using the perspective of the flock, Swann makes comedic jabs at human character and institutions.[4][5]

[njr]

^ I’m confused. First it says George is found dead by the sheep. Then later it says: With his friend Ham the butcher, George discovered the dead body of McCarthy. Was this before George died? Nowhere does it explain who McCarthy is!

[jo]

Marc
@marc96919631
·
24m
If #Nolan does remake #ThePrisoner next, then who will be the best as #NumberSix?

#ChristianBale
#HughJackman
#LeonardoDiCaprio
#TomHArdy
#MathewMcConaughey
#MattDamon
#RobertPattinson
#CilianMurphy
Show more

Completely revised my responses- to fit the theme of the cult classic which Nolan is in the process of rewriting --

JoAB
@joab46466753
·
2h
HughJackman now --
JoAB
@joab46466753
HughJackman worked w/ Nolan inThePrestige,a story about obssession.Worked w/ Aronofsky in TheFountain re the search for immortality.Gave an intense portrayal of a father looking for a missing daughter,w/Villenueve. Showed dramatic skills even in superhero films( Logan,w/Mangold).


JoAB
@joab46466753
HughJackman now --



JoAB
@joab46466753


·
15m
Replying to
@marc96919631
It seems ThePrisoner is a philosophical treatise on individualism vs communal philosophy? I wonder how Nolan will translate it to a modern tale? In TheFountain Jackman was a man in search of immortality in the past, present&future, translated to drama & philosophical discussion.




JoAB
@joab46466753

HJ is part English(parentage)&has portrayed Englishmen inThePrestige&Scoop.Background in dramatic theatre(worked w/ RNTheatre w/ TNunn)&w/ a 2nd degree in investigative work(Journalism).Earned Oscar nomination in LesMiserables(Prisoner 24601).Theatre actor,too.

[jo]

Background on The Prisoner ( TV series from the past) --

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Prisoner

Premise
The series follows Number Six (Patrick McGoohan), an unnamed British intelligence agent who, after abruptly and angrily resigning from his highly sensitive government job, prepares to go on a trip. While packing his luggage, he is rendered unconscious by knockout gas piped into his home in Westminster.

Upon waking, he finds himself in a re-creation of the interior of his home, located in a mysterious coastal settlement known to its residents as "the Village". The Village is surrounded by mountains on three sides and the sea on the other.

The man becomes acquainted with the residents, hundreds of people from all walks of life and cultures, all seeming to be peacefully and mostly enjoyably living out their lives.[8] They do not use names, but have been assigned numbers which, aside from designations such as Two, Three, and Six, give no clue as to their status within the Village; most are captives but some are guards. Prisoners, therefore, have no idea whom they can and cannot trust. The protagonist is assigned Number Six, but he refuses to accept the designation: "I am not a number! I am a free man!"[3]

Although the residents can freely move about the Village, they are constantly under the surveillance of numerous high-tech monitoring systems and cannot leave. Security forces, including a balloon-shaped automaton called Rover, recapture or kill those who attempt to escape.[9]

I will not make any deals with you. I've resigned. I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed, or numbered! My life is my own.

Number Six in the first episode "Arrival"

Number Six is a particularly important target of the constantly changing Number Two, the Village administrator, who acts as an agent for the unseen Number One. Number Two uses techniques such as hallucinogenic drugs, identity theft, mind control, dream manipulation and forms of social indoctrination and physical coercion in attempt to make Number Six reveal why he resigned from his position. The position of Number Two is assigned to a different person in each episode, with two making repeat appearances. This is assumed to be part of a larger plan to disorient Number Six, but sometimes the change of personnel seems to be the result of the failure of the previous incumbent, whose fate is unknown.[10]

Number Six, distrustful of everyone in the Village, refuses to co-operate or provide the answers they seek. He struggles, usually alone, with various goals, such as determining for which side of the Iron Curtain the Village functions, if either; remaining defiant to its imposed authority; concocting his own plans for escape; learning all he can about the Village; and subverting its operation. His schemes lead to the dismissals of the incumbent Number Two on several occasions. Despite foiling the system, however, Number Six never manages to escape successfully. By the end of the series, the administration, becoming desperate for Number Six's knowledge, as well as fearful of his growing influence in the Village, takes drastic measures that threaten the lives of Number Six, Number Two, and the entire Village.[5]

A major theme of the series is the conflict between individualism, as represented by Number Six, and collectivism, as represented by the Village. According to McGoohan, the series aimed to demonstrate a balance between the two ideologies.[11]

[jo]

Some thoughts on THE PRISONER which has become a cult classic --

6 ways cult show The Prisoner prepared us for the modern world

Fifty years after Patrick McGoohan’s surreal spy series The Prisoner first aired on TV, are we all now living in The Village?

29 September 2017

By Stephen Dalton


The Prisoner (1967-68)
Fifty years ago, The Prisoner transformed primetime television drama into avant-garde art. Conceived by its star, Patrick McGoohan, in conjunction with George Markstein, this surreal swinging 60s classic was Kafka on Carnaby Street, a spy thriller that owed more to Buñuel or Beckett than Bond.

McGoohan starred in The Prisoner as Number Six, an unnamed British secret agent who angrily resigns on unexplained ethical grounds. He is immediately sedated and abducted, waking up in The Village, a picturesque coastal prison camp of sinister tweeness. More Butlins than Guantanamo Bay, the show’s main location was Portmeirion in north Wales, a magnificent mock-Mediterranean fantasy designed and built by Sir Clough Williams-Ellis.




Over 17 episodes, the shadowy forces running The Village try to coerce Number Six into confessing the real motives behind his retirement, using a range of sneaky tricks and brainwashing techniques. He resists them all. “I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered,” he barks. “My life is my own.”


A hard-drinking perfectionist, the Irish-American McGoohan did not suffer fools gladly. As the highest paid actor on British TV following his success in the more conventional spy series Danger Man, he had the clout to make The Prisoner in his own image, conceiving the basic premise as well as writing and directing several episodes. He even gave Number Six the same birthday as himself: 19 March 1928.

In an era when Britain had just three channels, this kind of star power carried real weight in ratings terms. And McGoohan arguably tested it to the limit, leaving behind one of the boldest and strangest TV experiments of all time.

Critically lauded on both sides of the Atlantic, The Prisoner ended prematurely in 1968, but its cult mystique remains. Behind the show’s trendy surface sheen of Sgt Pepper-ish psychedelia, McGoohan took great pains to make it as timeless as possible, a dark fairytale with allegorical resonance. Half a century later, this uncanny journey through the looking glass still has prophetic lessons for us about politics, technology, social conformity and television itself.




Here are six of them.

Number 1: The Prisoner predicted our current age of 24-hour mass surveillance
Made at the peak of Cold War anxiety about Orwellian police states behind the Iron Curtain, The Prisoner raised the unsettling possibility that even benign western democracies might spy on their own citizens.

Even in the cosy toytown idyll of The Village, a subterranean army of faceless minions monitor our every move, brainwashing us into being model citizens and quiescent consumers. And what’s more, we like it. This was years before the shock revelations of Watergate, and decades before Edward Snowden exposed the global mass surveillance of the NSA and other agencies.


The Prisoner (1967-68)
“We’re run by the Pentagon, we’re run by Madison Avenue, we’re run by television,” McGoohan warned in a 1977 interview. “As long as we accept those things and don’t revolt we’ll have to go along with the stream to the eventual avalanche.”

Half a century after The Prisoner, Big Brother is watching everybody, and everybody is watching Big Brother.



Number 2: No Prisoner, no Twin Peaks
The Prisoner was the first auteur masterpiece of the TV era, shaped by a singular vision rather than committee-driven commercial imperatives. Like Twin Peaks, it was paranoid and surreal, a riddle wrapped in an enigma clothed in the Trojan Horse trappings of a populist primetime thriller.


The Prisoner (1967-68)
McGoohan’s visionary show laid down the foundations for Twin Peaks, The X-Files, Lost and other mind-bending trips into the Twilight Zone. David Lynch even included a homage to the monkey-mask scene from the Prisoner finale ‘Fall Out’ in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992), while X-Files producer John Shiban called McGoohan’s show “the Gone with the Wind of its genre”, and J.J. Abrams has admitted “there are elements of The Prisoner in both Alias and Lost.”

Number 3: The Prisoner cult has grown far beyond the original TV series
A prescient piece of pop art branding, The Prisoner spawned a host of viral memes decades before the term was even coined. The show’s quotable lines, bold visuals and unique sinister-friendly typeface (modelled on the Albertus font) continue to echo throughout pop music, TV, cinema and visual art. There have been homages to the show in Battlestar Galactica, The Matrix, G.I. Joe, Mad Men, SpongeBob SquarePants and many more. In 2000, McGoohan even sportingly spoofed his Number Six role by guesting on The Simpsons episode ‘The Computer Wore Menace Shoes’.


The Prisoner (1967-68)
Dozens of bands including Iron Maiden, Altered Images, XTC and Supergrass have also paid tribute on record and in music videos. In 2012, the inaugural Festival N°6 took place at Portmeirion, its name and location directly referencing The Prisoner. Headliners New Order came on stage dressed in copies of McGoohan’s signature blazer from the show.

Number 4: A remake-proof classic will live forever
The Prisoner was so heavily imprinted with McGoohan’s personality that it has proved impossible to remake over the decades, despite numerous stalled attempts. Various big-screen adaptations have been mooted, with Kevin Costner and Mel Gibson as potential stars, and big-name directors like Christopher Nolan behind the camera. All came to nothing.


The Prisoner (1967-68)
A six-part TV mini-series starring Christopher Eccleston was announced by Sky in 2006, then shelved. The US network AMC finally rebooted the series in 2009, co-starring Jim Caviezel and Ian McKellen, relocating The Village to a desert outpost in Namibia. An ambitious failure, it was soon forgotten.

Just last year, Ridley Scott was attached as director of the latest planned remake, but history suggests fans should not get their hopes up. Be seeing you? Don’t count on it.

Number 5: The Prisoner makes more sense in a post-truth, post-ideological age
Any political messages in The Prisoner are tangled and murky, but the show arguably resonates more deeply today than 50 years ago. McGoohan satirises the totalitarian horrors of communist China and Soviet Russia in episodes like ‘A Change of Mind’, but he also mocks the hollow spectacle of western consumer democracy in ‘Free for All’, when Number Six stands for election in The Village. “Brainwashed imbeciles,” he sneers at his fellow citizens. “Can you laugh? Can you cry? Can you think?”


The Prisoner (1967-68)
A morally conservative Catholic who refused to do love scenes on screen, McGoohan was critical of social progress and state bureaucracy, but he also saw hope in the revolutionary youth movements of the 60s. A mass of contradictions, he ultimately believed the Jekyll-and-Hyde evil that lurks inside every person is “the greatest enemy that we have”. Hence the show’s psychedelic final twist.

Number 6: Always leave them wanting more
By fateful accident, The Prisoner ended up being McGoohan’s unfinished symphony. Unlike Lost or the original Twin Peaks, the show ended before jumping the shark into pretentious excess, and is thus remembered with almost universal fondness.

Lew Grade’s production company ITC initially commissioned a two-season series spanning 26 episodes, but cancelled it after just 17. The second series would have seen Number Six escaping The Village and travelling the world, but still pursued by his former captors and still a metaphorical prisoner of his own mind.


The Prisoner (1967-68)
Freed from the pressure to pander to fans or advertisers, McGoohan wrote the series finale ‘Fall Out’ in a matter of days, a strikingly Brechtian allegory full of unanswered questions and cryptic clues that enraged some viewers. It ends on an ironically cheery cliffhanger as Number Six flees the Village and returns to London, his future unclear, his fate unresolved. “He’s got no freedom,” McGoohan explained in 1977. “Freedom is a myth. There’s no final conclusion to it.”

[jo]

ScreenRant

Movie News
Christopher Nolan's Next Movie May Be Remake Of 1960s Mystery Show
BY
ADAM BENTZ
PUBLISHED 2 DAYS AGO


Christoper Nolan will begin working on his next movie after winning Best Picture for Oppenheimer, and it may be a remake of a 1960s mystery show.

Christopher Nolan's Next Movie May Be Remake Of 1960s Mystery Show

Play Video



SUMMARY
Christopher Nolan may remake the 1960s mystery show, The Prisoner , after Oppenheimer 's success.
The show's concept aligns with Nolan's style and may resemble Tenet .
Nolan may return to Warner Bros. after a brief feud during Oppenheimer 's production.


Christoper Nolan's next movie may be a remake of a 1960s mystery show. The visionary director of the Dark Knight trilogy, Inception, Interstellar, and Dunkirk, Nolan's latest film is Oppenheimer, which chronicles the career of the titular theoretical physicist who spearheaded development of the atomic bomb during World War II. The R-rated, 3-hour biopic defied the odds to become a big box office success, grossing $960 million worldwide, and arguably the most acclaimed film of the year, recently winning seven Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director for Nolan at the 2024 Oscars.


Now, Nolan will begin working on his next movie. According to Variety, Nolan's next movie may be a remake of the British 1960s mystery show, The Prisoner, which was created by and starred Patrick McGoohan. Since Nolan has yet to start writing the screenplay, there are no details about what his remake might entail, including the plot or cast.

The Prisoner (1967) is available to stream for free on many services, including Freevee, Plex, Pluto TV, The Roku Channel, and Tubi.


Christopher Nolan is one of the most acclaimed, distinctive filmmakers of his generation. Here's our ranking of his films from worst to best.



What To Expect From Christopher Nolan's The Prisoner
a custom image of Christopher Nolan alongside the set of The Prisoner

Nolan was previously attached to a remake of The Prisoner in 2009, though he aborted the project when AMC aired its own six-part miniseries based on the 1960s mystery show with a cast that included Jim Caviezel, Ian McKellen, and Hayley Atwell. It's been 15 years since AMC aired its remake, so Nolan is seemingly comfortable tackling his own take on The Prisoner. Nolan is one of the most singular filmmakers working today who utilizes scale better than any director other than Denis Villeneuve, so setting his own remake apart from the AMC series shouldn't be a concern.

The Prisoner (2009) is streaming on AMC+ and many free services.


The Prisoner follows an unnamed British intelligence agent, Number Six, who is abducted and imprisoned in a mysterious coastal village after resigning from his position. The show blends multiple genres, such as sci-fi, psychological thriller, and spy fiction. Based on this, it sounds like Nolan's take on The Prisoner should be similar to his 2020 film, Tenet, but also return to his roots in Following, Memento, Insomnia, and The Prestige – all of which incorporate elements of psychological thriller.

Another major question surrounding Nolan's next movie is what studio he will partner with. For most of his career, Nolan made movies with Warner Bros., but after his public falling out with the studio over its day-and-date release strategy on HBO Max during the pandemic, the director took his talents to Universal for Oppenheimer, and Warner Bros. responded by counterprogramming with Barbie. However, Christoper Nolan has said the feud is behind them and expressed interest in returning to Warner Bros.

Source: Variety

[jo]

From the TV series - trailers, etc.

www.bing.com/videos/riverview/relatedvideo?q=youtube%20patrick%20mcgoohan%20the%20prisoner&mid=131EAB9B7D5C96C6DBB8131EAB9B7D5C96C6DBB8&ajaxhist=0

[jo]

The man who posed the question replied with his own choice --

Marc
@marc96919631
·
50m
Hugh Jackman would be ideal IMO.

[jo]

Because of its cultish nature - not surprising that fans have posted their own views of the meaning of the show.

NUMBERED MAN – AN ANALYSIS OF THE PRISONER (1967)

Published On July 5, 2015 » 10004 Views» By admin » Culture, Esoteric/Speculation, Espionage, Film Review/Analysis, Geopolitics, Philosophy, Psy Ops, Video

Purchase signed copies in the shop!

By: Jay Dyer

1960s spy fiction is some of my favorite fiction. Developing its own unique aesthetic, from Bond to The Saint to Harry Palmer, the vivid, flamboyant style of both the spies and their cinema incarnations created an iconic pop phenomena that survives still (as 007 is still going strong). Everyone knows 007, but few are aware of the more philosophical, science fiction based British cult show, The Prisoner starring Patrick McGoohan. McGoohan not only starred in the show, but is also the series’ co-creator, following his successful Danger Man series, and reportedly passed over the role of Bond in Dr. No and The Saint due to moral qualms with 007’s ethics (McGoohan was a professing Roman Catholic). Regardless, The Prisoner remains one of the most fascinating presentations of the dark side of international espionage, combining the esoteric, philosophical, geopolitical and the fantastical, as well as functioning as a critique of the most foundational assumptions of modern, “progressive” man. For this, it most certainly warrants an analysis.

Mysteriously resigning from the British Secret Intelligence Service, “No. 6” finds himself drugged and kidnapped before he is even able to pack his bags and skip town. Waking in a mock version of his own London apartment, 6 discovers himself transplanted to an idyllic self-contained, prison-like Disney-looking village, where former spies and agents are “retired.” Unaware of his location, The Village in real life is actually Portmeirion, North Wales, which is a curiously out-of-place Italian-style village rumored to be visited by the Royal Family, as the village is now owned by the Clough-Williams Ellis Trust connected with the Crown.

This is worth noting, because the metanarrative aspects emerge with the Crown (the head of the SIS) being associated with Portmeirion, and the SIS in the film secreting 6 away to the Village for his imprisonment. This connection is further driven home by the fact that the series based its story on an actual “retirement home” for British Spies, the Invair Lodge “cooler” according to George Markstein’s book, which claims such notions were so infinitely “deep state” they could only be told in fiction. Markstein was also the script editor for The Prisoner, and his close connections to the security establishment suggest the same type of intelligence-scripting I have highlighted elsewhere.

Back to the story. No. 6 quickly discovers the Village is a strictly communal, statist system in which unknown “wardens” hide amongst the docile, passive population, under complete control by No. 2, the antagonistic would-be handler of 6. Number 2’s that fail to psychologically break 6 are inevitably replaced, and new forms of psychological manipulation, mind control and MKULRA-style de-programming and re-programming strategies are continually applied. Each episode features some conspiracy on the part of the shadow establishment, ruling from atop the Village in their panopticon surveillance dome, over the completely managed social order. Like 1984, all actions are video taped and recorded for review by No. 2 and his technocratic bureaucrats to determine 6’s reason for resignation. Did he defect? Was he brainwashed? Was he involved in something illegal?





In the first few episodes, 6 is tempted with standard fare in the espionage world – honeypots, swallows, emotional manipulation, and mind control, none of which take effect. Seeking escape, 6 continually eludes the manipulative strategies of the various 2’s, yet every escape attempt from the island is frustrated. Supernaturally apprehended by the eerily cheesy “rovers,” the lava lamp spherical orbs emerge from the abyss to ever-foil 6’s escape, returning him to his mimicked apartment the next morning. “What do you want?” 6 demands. “We want information!” 2 replies with a hearty cackle, never divulging Number 1’s identity. 6’s resilience appears at first to be a noble image of the individualistic rebel, the lone wolf who stands for his own identity against the dastardly designs of the statist collective. However, we will see by the end of the series and from McGoohan’s rare interview, that is not the case – the critique runs much deeper.

Worth mentioning in the early episodes is the presence of numerous technologies of social control and manipulation far ahead of their time. Prescient, as most science fiction tends to be, references to fMRI machines that can read brainwaves, mind-wiping technologies and drugs reported to be had by DARPA in our time, and techniques for the manipulation of archetypes through psychoanalysis, and global brain style super computers that tabulate predictive algorithms to manipulate and control 6 are rife in the series. Ultimately, the Village represents the modern world en toto, and McGoohan has identified the series’ famous bicycle logo as symbolic of man’s illusory belief in “technological progress,” which actually leads to his increasing enslavement.

The Village is the world under the control of a scientific dictatorship with total NSA-style-meets-Brave New World surveillance, creating a virtual prison planet predicted in Bentham’s panopticon. Indeed, in conversations between 6 and 2, 2 identifies the Village as the Global Village, subject to a false dialectic in which the “two sides” of the Cold War coin are a manipulated dialectic. This is elucidated symbolically when 6 is hauled before a kangaroo court under No. 2, himself sitting beneath an All-Seeing Eye. In this context, the eye signifies both surveillance and perhaps the control of the farcical legal system by secret societies. Unaware of his violations, the Kafka-esque trials throughout the series result in “guilty” verdicts based on “democracy” and “public opinion,” laughably determined for the community by the technocratic oligarchy that controls the Village.

In Episode 3, “Free for All,” Cold War dialectics are evident in 6’s plot to spark a democratic revolution. As can be expected, the “666!” revolution was entirely the plan of 2 all along. In this context, chants of “666!” are not accidental – the beast of humanistic statism mentioned in John’s Apocalypse has “666” standing for the “number of a man,” an antichrist, or a numerological image of Babel style world state, where a shadow elite sways a complete collective like a head steers a body (the body of the Hobbesian Leviathan beast). Always, despite his exemplary fire to spark a revolution in the minds of men, 6 discovers his free individual plan to be co-opted by the establishment. Since the collective and democratic revolutions proved fraudulent, perhaps the new revolution could be that of the great man, the true individual – or is this also a ruse?





“The whole earth as the village.”

The next several episodes feature 6 as subject to altered personalities in the vein of Dr. Estabrooks’ MKULTRA work, hypnosis, and mass Village mind control through television signals. Again, revelation of the method emerges in 1967, revealing the means by which highly sophisticated mind control occurs in our day through television flicker rates which lull brainwaves into an alpha state, the lowest, most suggestible arena of brain activity. The “General” behind this manipulation, as I mentioned, is actually an A.I. supercomputer of sorts, ultimately outsmarted by 6’s cunning question, “Why?” which a programmed computer can never process. “Why?” will become the great secret to the series, where in the finale episode, when achieving his throne as the new king, the great individual, 6 begins to question his former interlocutors, “Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?” to which they can never give an adequate response.

Death is mentioned consistently through the series, which I read in multiple ways. Is 6 dead, and is the Village a form of afterlife where 6 must suffer a kind of purgatory or final judgment? In my estimation the solution is both – 6 is dead, and not only his death the secret of the series, as representative of modern man, and man as the great, libertarian individual, he is “dead.” In Buddhism, the broken cup signifies death (the cup is already broken) and numerous times in the series, cups are broken, often by 6. That 6 is dead is also shown by the supernatural elements of the Village which emerge in rare intervals, such as the rovers, “dem bones,” the emergence of long-dead historical figures like Napoleon, time freezing, and the memorable episode 7, dance of the dead, where 2 reveals to 6 the body in the morgue is “You.” As the mob seeks to murder 6, 2 informs him, “They don’t know you’re already dead.” Long speculated, the meaning is, as I said, twofold. 6 is dead, and so is the revolutionary modern man, who since the time of the French Revolution has believed himself to be “free from oppression” under liberte, egalite, fraternite!

Ultimately the death thesis is demonstrated in the allegorical episode, “The Girl Who Was Death,” where 6 traverses Europe seeking a mysterious German femme fatale who provokes war based around political assassinations. In the end, Death is a daughter of the Frankish-Napoleonic power, the very power that has dominated Albion since the Norman invasion. Could the series be hinting at the very thesis my friend and historian James Kelley has proposed, following the work of Fr. John Romanides, that the subjugation and decline of Europe is the result of the Frankish model of enslavement? It is possible, as the Merovingian line seems to have gained a large amount of power over the last millennium. The episode is oddly presented as a “fairy tale” that 6 tells to a bunch of children, that only children would believe the thesis that London’s enemies are going to create the ultimate terror threat of the bomb almighty. Is 6 saying only foolish children believe such childish, contrived global crises?

The “false flag” thesis is supported by episode 10, “It’s Your Funeral” (also supporting the death thesis), where 6 is set up to be framed for the assassination of 2. Ultimately a plot of 2 himself against a new No. 2, the bomb plot is entirely contrived. As all the episodes, 6 is able to out Psy Op the Psy Op masters themselves, which early on give the viewers hints as the real identity of the elusive. unknown No. 1 to whom all the Village is subject. As the series comes to an astonishing close, 6 is brought underground into his deepest subconscious where he regresses to a childlike state under the original No. 2’s mind control psychoanalysis. Like the SIS-connected Tavistock Institute, the Village functions as the scientistic mechanism for converting the world into a gigantic test tube for the manipulation of the latest behavioral conditioning perfected through psychological warfare operations that originated in the world of espionage and warfare.

Regressing 6 to his earliest years, 2 remains unable to extract the ultimate reason for 6’s resignation. The complicated finale depicts a 6 victorious over No. 2, now the greatest “individual” and the first successful “revolutionary.” As 6 is enthroned, he sits in judgment on the rest of the Village, including all dualities and binary oppositions – judging the anarchists and the pacifists, the radicals and the conservatives. The big reveal is that No. 1 is No. 6, a truth revealed in the opening of each episode, where 2’s response to 6’s question as to the identity of No. 1 is always met with an ambiguous reply that could be read in two ways – “You are number 6,” or “You are, number 6.” Colin Cleary accurately explains the series’ anti-modern, anti-individualist stance as follows in his essay:

“In short, The Prisoner attacks modernity on the following grounds:

Modernity rests upon a materialistic metaphysics (all is matter), and champions materialism as a way of life (the focus on material comfort and satisfaction).



Modernity is spiritually empty (again, no church in the Village); it must deny or destroy what is higher in man.
Modernity destroys culture, tradition, and ethnic and national identity in the name of “progress” (called “multiculturalism” and “globalization” today). It is significant that we do not know where the Village is, for modern people are really “nowhere.” As Nietzsche’s “Madman” said, “Where are we headed? Are we not endlessly plunging—backwards, sideways, forwards, in all directions? Is there an up and a down anymore? Do we not wander as if through an endless nothingness? Do we not feel the breath of empty space? Hasn’t it grown colder?” (The Gay Science).
Modernity promises only trivial freedoms (e.g., the freedom to shop) while suppressing freedom of thought, freedom of religion, freedom of association.


Modernity involves the belief that nature (including human nature) is infinitely malleable, open to the endless manipulation and “improvement” of science. In a 1977 interview with Canadian journalist Warner Troyer, McGoohan said, “I think we’re progressing too fast. I think that we should pull back and consolidate the things that we’ve discovered.”
Modernity systematically suppresses ideals that rise above material concerns: ideals like honor, and dignity, and loyalty (the Village is filled with traitors).
Modernity preaches a contradictory ethos of collectivism, and “looking out for No. 1.”
Modernity banishes the sacred, and profanes all through oppressive levity, irony, and irreverence (masking cynicism).
Modernity places physical security and comfort above the freedom to be self-determining, to be let alone, and to take risks.
Modernity fills the emptiness in people’s lives with noise (the TV and radio you can’t turn off). Silence might start people thinking, which could make them unhappy.
In addition to the hostility to religion, the Village also seems to be hostile to marriage, sex, and procreation. It is not clear whether there are any married couples in the Village. Sex is probably forbidden. No children are seen until “The Girl Who Was Death,” and those children are depicted as living in a kind of barracks. There is a touch of Plato’s Republic in The Prisoner.”



In the final analysis, The Prisoner is about modern man as a dead man. In his final revolution, the revolution of the solitary, atomized individual unit, there is no “Why?” for this man to be the free individual he imagines himself to be. He is just as much a prisoner of the dialectic as the collective he opposes, as he has no other higher aims than himself. When he is enthroned as king, his final revolution results in the launching of a revolution that destroys The Village and launches an ICBM that will presumably destroy London. Having overcome all his inner demons and the prison of his conscience (that is, the Village and its rovers are 6 grappling with his conscience in the afterlife), and realizing his worst enemy is not the system, the people, or the world, but himself, 6 returns to his old life as No. 1.

In fact, the address to 6’s apartment was always “No. 1.” In like manner, modernity’s “revolution” in the global village, is the revolution of a meaningless numerological quantification where being “No. 1” means nothing more than being No. 2 or No. 86 in a world divested of any meaning beyond the individual’s competing ego desires. While The Prisoner is a treatise against the collective, it is also a warning to unfettered, meaningless individualism. McGoohan foresaw the coming age of dystopian control where all of us would be tracked by a numerological cipher, under the “wandering stars” of the stellar luminaries that emblazon the heavens of the surveillance dome of the Village. In biblical symbology, the celestial luminaries are guided by angelic intelligences, or Watchers that correspond to earthly potentates. In the Village, the control grid of the Watchers is primarily technological and scientific, where man has been converted into a generic number in a long set of numbers, as if he were himself a cipher to be decoded and programmed.

[jo]

Added this information --

HJ is age-appropriate for a "retired" spy.
Btw, he is also rumored or has been approached for the long-aborning film adaptation of The Good Spy ( a biopic about American diplomat/CIA Robert Ames - set in the middle East).

[jo]

If Hugh has to make a choice -- I would rather that he chose The Good Spy. It translates more easily to modern day thinking and is based on real events. The book on which the film will be adapted was well-received ( author is a Pullitzer Prize winner). It will also touch on more appropriate current geopolitics.

American CIA operative Robert Ames attempts to forge a healthy relationship between the U.S. and nations in the Middle East, but tragedy strikes in 1983 when a bomb detonates outside the American Embassy in Beirut.

Jo

[jo]

From the original Variety article written by Tatiana Seigel( the THReporter writer who outed Scott Rudin's behavior) --

Now all eyes are on what Nolan — who wrote, directed and produced “Oppenheimer” — will do next. Some say it will be a remake of the mystery-thriller “The Prisoner,” based on the 1960s TV series created by and starring Patrick McGoohan, which Nolan was attached to in 2009. But the sci-fi project vanished from Nolan’s dance card that same year, when AMC released its own “The Prisoners,” a six-part miniseries led by Jim Caviezel as the ill-fated agent Number Six alongside Ian McKellen and Ruth Wilson. Others say he will begin writing a new screenplay now that the awards season is behind him.

Are both referring to The Prisoners?

Jo

[njr]

Mar 14, 2024 10:18:53 GMT -5 jo said:

From the original Variety article written by Tatiana Seigel( the THReporter writer who outed Scott Rudin's behavior) --

Now all eyes are on what Nolan — who wrote, directed and produced “Oppenheimer” — will do next. Some say it will be a remake of the mystery-thriller “The Prisoner,” based on the 1960s TV series created by and starring Patrick McGoohan, which Nolan was attached to in 2009. But the sci-fi project vanished from Nolan’s dance card that same year, when AMC released its own “The Prisoners,” a six-part miniseries led by Jim Caviezel as the ill-fated agent Number Six alongside Ian McKellen and Ruth Wilson. Others say he will begin writing a new screenplay now that the awards season is behind him.

Are both referring to The Prisoners?

Jo

Yes, both are referring to the ‘60s show “The Prisoner.” Jim Caviezel’s miniseries was also called “The Prisoner.”

www.imdb.com/title/tt1043714/

Do you have an answer to the question I asked on Mar. 6th before all these posts?

Nancy

[jo]

Guess what --

The author of "The Good Spy" Kai Bird co-authored the Pulitzer Prize-winning "AMERICAN PROMETHEUS" -- the book on which the Christopher Nolan's film OPPENHEIMER was based!

Jo

[jo]

JoAB
@joab46466753
·
26s
No, please - for Hugh Jackman!
I would like him to move on to roles in other genres in his next movies. He already missed the FERRARI role when the pandemic delayed his Bway run. Maybe the next role he is linked to - the biopic of American diplomat-CIA Robert Ames (The Good Spy)?

DiscussingFilm
@discussingfilm
·
43m
J.K. Simmons says Hugh Jackman or Ryan Reynolds should play Omni-Man in the live-action ‘INVINCIBLE’ movie.

(Source: comicbook.com/tv-shows/news/invincible-j-k-simmons-who-play-live-action-omni-man/)

[jo]

Interesting article on HISTORICAL FILMS --

some thoughts on how these reflections can help potential historical films like THE GOOD SPY to be entertaining as well as repository of history!

Mar 16, 2024 0:14:14 GMT -5 jo said:

theconversation.com/as-oppenheimer-triumphs-at-the-oscars-we-should-ask-how-historical-films-frame-our-shared-future-225304

Christopher Nolan accepts the award for Best Director for ‘Oppenheimer’ during the Oscars on March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
As ‘Oppenheimer’ triumphs at the Oscars, we should ask how historical films frame our shared future
Published: March 11, 2024 8.05pm GMT
Author
Kim Nelson
Associate Professor. Cinema Arts, School of Creative Arts, University of Windsor



Box office receipts for Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer had already approached the billion-dollar mark worldwide before the 2024 Oscars ceremony.

To this financial success, along with film awards for Best Director, Cinematography, Editing, Sound, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor, Oppenheimer garnered Nolan his first Academy Award for Best Picture.

In larger Academy Award history, this raises the tally for historical film wins to 52 over 96 competitions, according to research by film scholar Jonathan Stubbs and records at the Oscars website. There is a reason why people call big-budget historical films “Oscar bait.”

The glossy spectacle of this genre often brings attention to its makers. And yet, as I argue in my new book, Making History Move: Five Principles of the Historical Film, because the genre has such an outsized effect on spectators and their sense of historical reality, it’s important to think about and understand how historical films are constructed.

With Oppenheimer having received so much commercial, critical and Academy success, we have an opportunity to think about critical criteria for viewing historical film — and what we are owed by historical filmmakers.



Highly influential medium
This genre of film represents much more than a bold quest to win the most sought-after prize at the most celebrated labour union awards in history. These films look to the past to offer us a story and argument in an effort to see ourselves in the present — and to make decisions toward the future.

People seen standing on a stage dressed in formal clothing, one holding a golden statue.
The cast and crew of ‘Oppenheimer’ accept the Best Picture award during the Oscars, March 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

The genre combines a bookish status, conveying data and the sense of learning about the real world. Facts are served up with a wallop of emotion, excitement, adventure, terror and tears, to large and diverse audiences.

Although far from the most trusted medium for history, a recent large-scale survey of Americans published by the American Historical Association found that historical documentaries and films are the top two sources for information about the past for the public.

Unlike with pure fiction, when we watch a historical film (such as other 2024 Best Picture nominees, The Zone of Interest and Killers of the Flower Moon) we have the sense that we are seeing and hearing the past as we learn details about historical people and events.

These films speak to shared intergenerational and foundational experiences and legacies. We interpret historical films in ways that feel personal.



Partisan cultural bubbles
We are well into the experiment of the internet age when social media platforms sort people into tribes.

In the words of Renée DiResta, a researcher at the Stanford Internet Observatory, people are living in discrete spheres operating with distinct media, norms and frameworks of facts — their own “bespoke realities.” These information silos spawn political convictions and perspectives that reinforce separate interpretations of present and past.

The result creates multiverses of meaning. We exist in partisan cultural bubbles, abandoning the tussle over an objective sense of the past in favour of ever-expanding and contradictory subjective narratives.

As this happens, mass media platforms, like feature films, gain precedence. They cross boundaries impermeable to history books, museums, university lectures and social networks, speaking to a shared sense of identity at vast communal scales.




He further explains that “it does not take extra work to put together experiences from a film with experiences from our lives to draw inferences. On the contrary, what takes extra work is to keep these different event representations separate.”

Now consider what happens when we make models of the past that we code as historical and non-fiction.



5 principles of historical films
For these reasons it is critical that we engage these films as more than mere diversion and amusement. Drawing on philosophy of history, literary and film theory, I have isolated five key principles to grasp and understand their construction, including:

narration, the stories they choose to tell and how they tell them;

evidence, the sources and use of data that represents the past;

reflexivity, the use of rupture techniques that pull the audience out of their immersion in the story, reminding them of the structuring process of history;

foreignness, the extent to which a film shows the richness of differences in ideas, beliefs, and material realities of the past, rather than creating a pantomime of contemporary people in fancy dress;

plurality, whether a film presents us a range or new perspectives on the meaning of events through their selection of people as characters.

These principles help us consider the creation, role and impact of historical films.



About envisioning futures
What makes historical films so compelling and so difficult is they have to fictionalize and imagine narratives around real people and events.

Filmmakers working with realities of the past are charged with making an interpretation of historical data — and a judgment about what it means to us today, in a way that engages and entertains us as spectators.

To be true to that contract, such films should not simply make things up. They need to strive for accuracy and objectivity, while performing a deft sleight of hand to enthrall and captivate.

On top of box office success and critical success, Oppenheimer does an impressive job of translating biographical source material into an engaging and thought-provoking feature film. As such, this functions as a clarion call in the present, sparking real questions about the meaning of the nuclear age today.