Back in 1995, Terry Gilliam adapted Chris Marker’s short film, La Jetee into 12 Monkeys, a sci-fi drama starring Bruce Willis, Brad Pitt and Madeleine Stowe. Nearly twenty years later, 12 Monkeys may find new life on television.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Chuck Roven and Richard Suckle (two of the producers from the 12 Monkeys film) are producing a new version of “12 Monkeys” at Syfy with Terry Matalas and Travis Fickett writing a 90 minute backdoor pilot that may lead to a straight-to-series order. Matalas and Fickett are both veterans of “Nikita” and “Terra Nova.” Jon Cassar (“24”) will direct the pilot.
In the 1995 film, Willis played James Cole, a prisoner from a devastated future who was sent back in time to figure out what caused the apocalypse and what role that Jeffrey Goines (Brad Pitt) and the mysterious group known as The Army of The 12 Monkeys played in humanity’s destruction.
Syfy’s President of Original Programming, Mark Stern told The Hollywood Reporter that “”We have a great pilot, we’re now flushing out what the rest of the series might be.”
The story notes that Syfy is aggressively expanding its original lineup for next year, with plans to potentially add several new series with shorter episode orders.
“We’re looking at short orders, maybe eight to 10 [episodes] as opposed to 13,” explained Stern. “Some may be [split runs of] 10 and 10. Our goal is to do five or six original scripted series a year and a big tentpole event miniseries that could also possibly serve as a backdoor pilot to a series as well the way that ‘Battlestar Galactica’ did. It’s an exciting time for us.”
Syfy’s newest original series, “Helix” is expected to premiere in early 2014. If “12 Monkeys” gets a series order, it will likely be held back for a spring or summer run on Syfy.
