Despite pushing 80, Ridley Scott is showing no signs of slowing down any time soon. He gave us one of his best films in a very long time with 2015’s The Martian, and is currently hard at work preparing the Prometheus sequel, Alien: Covenant. You’d be forgiven for thinking that the director would perhaps want to take a break after that. But not Sir Ridley.
As it turns out, Scott’s already got his next project lined up, as he’s in early talks to adapt the British TV series The Prisoner for Universal. First aired back in 1968, the show followed a British secret agent “who is abducted and held captive in a mysterious village resort, with his captors aiming to find out why he abruptly quit his job.”
Though it only lasted one season (comprised of 17 episodes) AMC remade it as a mini-series back in 2009. Since then, various plans for a feature film have been tossed around, with Christopher Nolan being attached to direct at one point. The most recent version of the project currently has a script from William Monahan, but it’s expected that another writer will step in to polish it up.
Apparently, as long as Scott approves of the new script, he’ll sign on. When he’ll get around to making The Prisoner, however, is another question entirely. There’s currently a lot going on in the Prometheus/Alien universe that the director will no doubt be involved with, and he’s also been talking about some other films that he’d like to make before he gets too old.
Either way, it’s definitely exciting to hear that The Prisoner will be hitting the big screen and with Scott behind the camera, you can bet that this will be one that’s worth keeping an eye on as it develops.
