Come In Number 6

Sitting down with Tomb Raider director Simon West today, Empire Online went fishing for some details about one of his upcoming projects - a big screen version of The Prisoner. 'We're just at script stage at the moment,' West told us. 'I'm always developing two or more things at once. This was actually supposed to be done before Tomb Raider, but the script wasn't ready.' So will West be shooting on The Prisoner's original set - the village of Portmeirion in North Wales? 'I would definitely want to shoot part of it there, West says, 'but this film is going to be on a much bigger scale. And also just go to a whole level. Portmerion wouldn't be big enough stylistically to be the whole film. Given the intense interest being shown in the film from the hordes of Prisoner fans out there, we wondered how much of the original programme would make it into the movie. 'From being a fan as a kid, out of nostalgia I would want to put as much of the key stuff from the series in there, like his car or the location,' West told us.'I'd even like to get Patrick McGoohan in there if he's at all interested.' McGoohan, who wrote and starred in the TV series, was one of the first people to be involved in the film script which has finally made its way to West. 'I don't know whether he's over it,' says West, 'but I want to wait until I've got a finished script I'm happy with before approaching him.' And what about rumours that he's already offered McGoohan's original part - Number 6 - to Clive Owen? 'It's just that,' he smiles, 'internet rumours.'