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Always loved this movie, Pitt was fantastic.
12 Monkeys is poised to follow in the footsteps of Friday Night Lights, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and, most recently, Fargo, as a well-regarded film making the leap to the small screen. The first trailer for Syfy's reboot has been released (you can watch it above), and it has even skeptical fans intrigued.
One of director Terry Gilliam's most successful (read: accessible) films, the original starred Bruce Willis as a man sent back in time to prevent a plague that decimates humanity. He ends up in a mental institution where he meets Dr. Railly, played by Madeleine Stowe, and fellow inmate Jeffrey Goins, played by Brad Pitt (a role that earned him an Oscar nomination).
Aaron Stanford (X-Men: The Last Stand) plays Bruce Willis's role, and Amanda Schull (Suits) plays Dr. Railly. Rather than meeting in the past, Railly is the person from the future who sends him to the past. This suggests a romantic relationship between the two that strengthen the parallels to the Terminator franchise, which also feature a time-traveler falling in love in the past.
There had been concerns that turning the film into a continuing television series would strip away many of the things that made 12 Monkeys interesting in the first place. For example, Gilliam's absurdist bent — he was an original member of Monty Python and supplied the troupe's signature cut-out animations — many feel won't be sustainable. Gilliam considers Monkeys part of a dystopian satire trilogy, along with 1985's Brazil and The Zero Theorem (in theaters August 19).
Stripping away absurdity may not be the worst thing for the show. A useful comparison would be Syfy's reboot of Battlestar Galactica, which took a poorly-regarded TV show from the '70s and turned it into a critical darling 25 years later.
A significant part of the film is the ambiguity of Willis's character: It's not clear for much of the film whether he is actually a time traveler, or just insane. Since it would be difficult to get a Season 2 if it turned out the whole first season was just a hallucination, it's a change that makes sense. Still, diehard fans of the original may not approve.
There is also a flubbed time jump in the film that sends Cole back to World War I; in the Syfy trailer, it looks like that jump has been shortened to 1987. Likely, only History Channel aficionados will miss this change.
What do you think? Co-executive producer Terry Matalas said audiences weren't ready for a serialized time-travel show five years ago, but “since then, they’ve collectively been trained on seasons of Lost.” Does that make you more excited... or more afraid?
12 Monkeys premieres in January on Syfy.
12 Monkeys is poised to follow in the footsteps of Friday Night Lights, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and, most recently, Fargo, as a well-regarded film making the leap to the small screen. The first trailer for Syfy's reboot has been released (you can watch it above), and it has even skeptical fans intrigued.
One of director Terry Gilliam's most successful (read: accessible) films, the original starred Bruce Willis as a man sent back in time to prevent a plague that decimates humanity. He ends up in a mental institution where he meets Dr. Railly, played by Madeleine Stowe, and fellow inmate Jeffrey Goins, played by Brad Pitt (a role that earned him an Oscar nomination).
Aaron Stanford (X-Men: The Last Stand) plays Bruce Willis's role, and Amanda Schull (Suits) plays Dr. Railly. Rather than meeting in the past, Railly is the person from the future who sends him to the past. This suggests a romantic relationship between the two that strengthen the parallels to the Terminator franchise, which also feature a time-traveler falling in love in the past.
There had been concerns that turning the film into a continuing television series would strip away many of the things that made 12 Monkeys interesting in the first place. For example, Gilliam's absurdist bent — he was an original member of Monty Python and supplied the troupe's signature cut-out animations — many feel won't be sustainable. Gilliam considers Monkeys part of a dystopian satire trilogy, along with 1985's Brazil and The Zero Theorem (in theaters August 19).
Stripping away absurdity may not be the worst thing for the show. A useful comparison would be Syfy's reboot of Battlestar Galactica, which took a poorly-regarded TV show from the '70s and turned it into a critical darling 25 years later.
A significant part of the film is the ambiguity of Willis's character: It's not clear for much of the film whether he is actually a time traveler, or just insane. Since it would be difficult to get a Season 2 if it turned out the whole first season was just a hallucination, it's a change that makes sense. Still, diehard fans of the original may not approve.
There is also a flubbed time jump in the film that sends Cole back to World War I; in the Syfy trailer, it looks like that jump has been shortened to 1987. Likely, only History Channel aficionados will miss this change.
What do you think? Co-executive producer Terry Matalas said audiences weren't ready for a serialized time-travel show five years ago, but “since then, they’ve collectively been trained on seasons of Lost.” Does that make you more excited... or more afraid?
12 Monkeys premieres in January on Syfy.
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