The future of the planned movie of The Prisoner has been thrown up into the air with the news that writer-director Christopher Nolan has now officially left the project.

Nolan, who is currently putting together his $200m sci-fi blockbuster Inception (due next summer, and shrouded with enough mystery right now to give Avatar a run for its money), had been on board to do a big screen adaptation of the Patrick McGoohan-starring TV series, and his departure could mean that the project hits the buffers. At the very least, it throws a hefty spanner in the works.

The news of his departure was confirmed by the film's producer, Barry Mendel, who was talking to the CineFools site. He said that "Chris Nolan has dropped out of it but we have a first draft by David and Janet Peoples who wrote Twelve Monkeys and David wrote Unforgiven and it's a good draft and we're working on the script right now."

That said, the fate of The Prisoner movie could hinge on the upcoming television reimagination of the series, that's starring Ian McKellen and Jim Caviezel. Mandel notes that "if the series was wildly popular that might affect us", but he still seems quite confident in the interview that the project has life in it either way.

As for Christopher Nolan? The rampant speculation doing the rounds now is that he's cleared the slate to jump back aboard the Batman franchise once he's done and dusted on Inception. Of course, speculation about Nolan and a third Batman film has not been in short supply since The Dark Knight brought Warner Bros a billion dollars at the worldwide box office, so the usual pinch of salt is probably a good idea.

His slate, however, does look quite empty post-Inception.... Here's hoping, eh?

Cinefools