Wednesday, January 14, 2009

So, Who Was Number One Again?


A flurry of news from the excellent blog Popehat, so I'll just link to the main page. I'm too lazy right now to mess with Microsoft Word, so, first things first.

No sooner do we hear that the popular British series The Prisoner has been remade and will be shown on the cable channel AMC (starring The Passion Of The Christ star Jim Caviezzel in the title role) than we learn that the old series star and creator Patrick MacGoohan has died at the age of 80.

If the new series is as good as the old reportedly was, it will serve as a fitting tribute to the life of this great actor, who also starred in the cult hit series The Avengers. AMC is showing the old series, but this is kind of a mixed bag. I don't think they could possibly top the ending of the old series, yet if they don't change it, that kind of ruins the element of surprise. Then again, it's easy enough to find that out on the internet. Or is it? Decades later, people are still debating what it means.

MacGoohan never revealed what it was, and now he has taken the secret to his grave.



On top of the news of MacGoohan's demise, it was revealed earlier that Ricardo Montalban has also died. He capped off a decades long career with an appearance in "The Wrath Of Khan", which was arguably the greatest of the Star Trek movies. Montalban, in the title role of the villainous Khan-a role he recreated from the old sixties series-made the movie and quite possibly is single-handedly responsible for re-invigorating the franchise.

That's the thing about great movie villains. You have to love them, and then again, you have to hate them.

2 comments:

Frank Partisan said...

It is more important that the bad guy be a good actor as say an Anthony Hopkins, as opposed to the hero.

I like the UK TV shows as The Avengers. I could watch them endlessly. I don't connect to UK humor.

na said...

The Plane Boss! The Plane! LOL