In recent years a lot of older properties have been dusted off and re-purposed on television and in comic books (not even counting the endless supply of remakes), but 12 Monkeys was not a movie I expected to get new life. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the SyFy Channel is turning the brain-melting Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt sci-fi flick into a series.
The 1995 film was directed by Terry Gilliam from a screenplay from David Webb Peoples, who adapted Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? into Blade Runner, and Janet Peoples. The movie show us a grim view of the future were only 1% of the population has survived a mysterious and very lethal virus, which has forced the survivors to live underground. In an attempt to learn more about the virus’ origins, James Cole (Willis), a convict, volunteers to be sent back in time. What follows is a twisty/turny nonlinear mind f$*% that wraps up nicely. I can see how they’d be able to stretch the idea into a series, but I’m not sure it would have the same appeal or affect as the movie. Lost and Twin Peaks with a touch of the Terminator could make a pretty darn cool series.
The new version of 12 Monkeys will start as a TV movie with the potential to become a “straight-to-series” order of 8 to 10 episodes. It is being penned by Terry Matalas and Travis Fickett. Both Matalas and Fickett wrote for the time travel/dinosaur family drama Terra Nova. Atlas Entertainment and Universal Cable Productions are behind the project with Jon Cassar (24, Daybreak, Revolution, Terra Nova, Kung Fu: The Legend Continues) attached to direct the 90 minute TV movie/series pilot. No word on when it would make it to our screens.
Leave a Reply