PatrickMcgoohan Tagged Articles at Cinematical

There have been countless debates about which James Bond is best, and as we saw from Kevin's post last November, the fans are all in disagreement. But those who side with Sean Connery can now celebrate a scientifically conclusive victory over the others, since a computer has apparently proved that the first Bond was the true Bond. Two U.K. psychologists -- one based in Scotland and one based in England, in case you think there's regional bias -- produced a composite image using a prototyping technique on a computer, and of all the Bond actors the image most resembles Connery.

The funny thing is, according to their procedure, the psychologists' proof is incorrect. Maybe they should have stressed that Connery is the closest thing to a real Bond ever portrayed in an official 007 film, because the real movie Bond would have to be David Niven, who plays the character in the parodic adaptation Casino Royale (the 1967 one). See, the composite image was made by feeding the computer pictures of other actors who Bond author Ian Fleming had said in 1961 had a facial structure similar to what he imagined for the character. Those actors were Stewart Granger, Richard Burton, Patrick McGoohan, James Mason, Rex Harrison, Cary Grant and, yes, David Niven. Considering the fact that McGoohan is still alive, there is still time for a tie, but I'll go ahead and crown Niven with the honor despite what a computer tells me. Either way, though, one important thing the composite seemed to indicate is that Daniel Craig is the furthest of all from being the true Bond.

I don't know how many of you have seen the short-lived British TV series The Prisoner, but if you haven't, you should (it's on DVD). It ran for fewer than 20 episodes in 1967, and is just awesome -- fantastically weird, creepily demented and incredibly smart, all at the same time. The series stars Patrick McGoohan as a government agent who, after his resignation, is kidnapped and finds himself in a place known only as "The Village", in which his name is now "Number 6", and no one will tell him anything about where he is, or why he is there. Oh, and whenever he tries to escape, big, white, balloon-y blobs chase him. (If that sounds familiar, there's a Simpsons episode based on the show -- even McGoohan, who hardly ever acts anymore, is in it.)

Anyhoo, it rocks. And if some studio were to decide they wanted to make it into a serious, intense-as-hell movie, I certainly wouldn't complain (assuming they didn't hire Michael Bay or Brett Ratner to fill the thing with explosions). Needless to say, then, I almost fell out of my chair this morning when I read in Variety that Christopher Nolan is close to signing a deal with Universal to direct a big screen version of The Prisoner. Hooray! Those of you who have seen the show will understand my glee -- based on his previous films (not to mention The Prestige), Nolan has exactly the right cinematic sensibility to make a Prisoner movie that kicks all kinds of ass.

Of course, it'll be a while -- the plan is for Nolan to start work on The Prisoner when he gets done with The Dark Knight (production on that film begins early next year). In the meantime, Janet and David Peoples (Twelve Monkeys, Unforgiven, Blade Runner) will get busy on the script.