You’ve heard us talk on the show and website about the possible big and small screen remake of the short-lived 1960’s “The Prisoner,” which originally starred Patrick McGoohan. We now can give you a few more details about the TV remake and when you can expect to see it in your living rooms.

AMC (American Movie Classics) cable network is re-making this sci-fi cult favorite in partnership with the U.K.’s Sky One and Granada International.

Rob Sorcher, AMC’s executive VP in charge of programming and production stated in an interview that with the rise in popularity recently of SF in television his network has been looking for something in the genre that would immediately capture the attention of the growing SF audience.

“It needed to be something with marquee value built in,” Sorcher said. “This show made an explosion in the genre 40 years ago; to this day, it’s loved by so many. This is an opportunity to remake a classic and reinterpret it, and it also gives us a built-in fan base.”

As we reported in an earlier story back in May, Bill Gallagher (Conviction) is set to pen the new series, which currently is only slated for six episodes just to test the waters. We can find nothing to the contrary on our original story concerning who will replace McGoohan as Number Six, so we can only assume that Christopher Eccleston (Doctor Who) is still under consideration for the part, at least for the first six episodes. Sky, however, has neither confirmed nor denied Eccleston’s involvement in the project.

“The Prisoner” follows a man who is an ex-spy who finds himself inexplicably trapped in a place called “the Village,” with no memory of how he arrived. All of the inhabitants are identified by a number instead of name, have no memory of a previous existence, nor are they aware of outside civilization and are under constant surveillance. The man, Number Six, sets out to discover the truth behind the Village, why he’s there and how he can escape.

The TV production will start in the Spring of 2007 and will be aired in both the U.S. and the U.K. in January 2008. If the series tests well, more episodes will be in the offing.

Christopher Nolan’s (Batman Begins) big screen version of “The Prisoner” is currently under negotiation over at Universal Studios where the writing team of Janet and David Peoples are scripting.