2009 brings its first cinematic and television casualty. Patrick McGoohan of The Prisoner and Danger Man fame has passed away at the age of 80 years old.

McGoohan died following a short illness at his Los Angeles home.

One week to Christmas and to take your mind off all the shopping that you haven’t done is the Mid Week Movie News Wrap Up.

This week:

Adam Shankman sails Sinbad; Sam Worthington may be The Phantom; Barry Sonnenfeld reads The How-To Guide for Saving the World and Rachel McAdams has Morning Glory.

News started circulating yesterday that an $87 million sequel to the 1996, Billy Zane starring comic book adaptation of The Phantom was in the works (what a mouthful). However, as regular Screen Rant readers will know – we don’t like to jump on every story, especially if it doesn’t sound quite right. I mean – who would ever make an $87 million sequel to a Billy Zane movie (not counting Titanic)?

Well, it turns out that we were right to wait again! The Phantom Legacy will not be a sequel, but one of the never-ending “reboots” that Hollywood is so found of these days.