Since it was first announced, there’s been a lot of speculation on what SyFy’s adaptation of Terry Gilliam’s cult-hit 12 Monkeys was going to look like. Things got even more interesting when Nikita alums Aaron Stanford and Noah Bean were cast in the lead roles thanks to co-creators/executive producers (and also Nikita alums) Travis Fickett and Terry Matalas. Since announcing the series would premiere in January 2015, SyFy’s been highly tight-lipped about the series in general, but that changes today as the network has unveiled the first full length trailer.
According to Fickett and Matalas during their appearance on the Nerdist Writers Panel podcast, the duo has wanted to do a serialized time travel series as early as five years ago, but every time they pitched it, they were shot down because executives were afraid of doing time travel on television. But then Lost happened and suddenly the market opened up. In a stunning twist to the story, the team developed the adaptation on spec with one of 12 Monkeys original producers and presented it to SyFy. The network was instantly intrigued, green-lit the pilot, and the rest is time travel history.
It’s very clear this series is taking a much different approach to the story than Gilliam’s film. This appears to be a more serious take, which is fine because it’s hard to say whether or not the tone of the original film would be very sustainable in the full-length, multi-year television series.
What do you guys think of the first trailer for 12 Monkeys? Let us know in the comments below!
so now Brad Pitt does the time traveling?
In hindsight, if they want to make a live action movie of “Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs” all they need do is film everything that goes on in Hollywood for one day. Nothing is ever forgotten quite as quickly (favors, sentiments, morality, taste, works) anywhere else as it is in Hollywood. Nor is any place else more eager to grind you up for fuel to keep the masses at bay.
I thought Planet of the Apes was cool when i was a kid. Then, I grew up, I read Pierre Boulle’s novel, realized once again what a mechanism for the perversion of everything Hollywood is, and never looked back. If Gilliam had thought 12 Monkeys would have made a good TV series, he would have made a TV series. As such, this series will provide as much to the pantheon of speculative fiction as all those Planet of the Apes TV series. Or films. Not that 12 Monkeys was a blockbuster film, even with Brad Pitt. Neither was Baron Munchausen. Gilliam makes art. Art doesn’t always make you rich, nor even having it make you cultured. But, after the artist is dead, the jackals certainly do know how to inflate the price of a piece of canvas. 12 Monkeys the TV show will not be art.
Ironically, 12 Monkeys itself is a remake, so get off your high horse.
“The uploader has not made this video available in your country.”
Gee, thanks. It’s not like i was interested anyways…
The trailer posted here does not give me hope that this will be done well.
meh…..I’ll have to try to keep open mind….loved the original
Which original one, the french movie or the American remake?
La Jete was technically a short.
Nikita sucked compared to La Feme Nikita series. However I look forward to seeing the new series and meeting the actors.
Ehh, I’m not sold, but willing to give it a chance.