In the comments from last week’s Friday Movie Quote, my friend Mike informed me that the movie 12 Monkeys is being adapted into a TV series for SyFy. As always, I’m really skeptical about remakes, reboots, and “re-imaginings.” I checked into the show. Most of the cast is unfamiliar, which is okay. But I noticed that Brad Pitt’s character — my favorite in the movie — has been changed into a female. Having a raving paranoid-schizophrenic character portrayed by a gal who looks like a fashion model isn’t promising. But, based on the trailer, that character doesn’t look to fill the same role in the series as in the movie. This makes sense, considering the way things turned out in the movie. And speaking of trailers, this one makes the show look like it has serious potential. I’ll definitely be giving it a go when it hits the airwaves.
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Nobody Move! 
John D.:
I really like the way trailer seemed to “drag me in” to the plot…and a female is a very good choice.
The movie left enough “threads” so that this series could pick them up and run with them.
It DOES seem intriguing and will worth a watch.
Nice find.
Stay safe out there.
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Casting Zeljko Ivanek helps too. He’ll make a great villain.
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Two comments about the changes:
First, the movie was somewhat of a closed loop as far as story and time travel goes. It didn’t lend itself to sequels (“12 Monkeys 2: This Time it’s Personal”) or a springboard to a show. So given that, there are going to have to be major modifications to the characters and plot.
Secondly, Brad Pitt is a girl isn’t just a middle school insult, it may make some sort of sense for the new show. I remember how skeptical I was about the changes being made for the re-imaging of Battlestar Galactica. Starbuck and Boomer are girls now? But…it really worked, and that was obvious after the mini series pilot for the show. So this can work too, IF the writers are good and know what they’re doing.
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Oh they’re definitely going to have to retool a number of things to make a series out of a movie that had such closure at the end. Kind of like what they did with From Dusk Till Dawn. I didn’t want to get into any spoilers for anyone who hadn’t seen the movie… ah, what the hell [SPOLIER ALERT] Pitt’s character was a red herring for for most of the movie. Obviously they can’t carry that on for too long in a weekly series. So my guess is that that character’s role will be somewhat diminished in the long term. It looks like Zeljo Ivanek is going to be the main villain in the TV version. That’ll give the protag someone to square off with, rather than going on a wild goose chase every episode.
As for the BSG comparison, well, all I can say is that when it comes to reboots/re-imaginings that I hated, BSG 2.0 is near the top of the list. I watched one episode, and that was it. Turning Starbuck into a chick pretty much pissed in my corn flakes. No way I was shoveling another spoonful into my mouth after that. I’m probably in the minority there, but so be it.
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I don’t remember this movie at all, other than that I liked it. I need to re-watch. And don’t all characters in TV shows need to look like fashion models these days, male and female included?
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Most of them, I suppose. With a few notable exceptions. People like James Gandolfini and Steve Buscemi managed to become stars on the small screen without the typical leading man look. I guess that gives hope to the rest of us.
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True, but those dudes were on premium channel shows. Rules seem different over there.
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[…] Contains spoilers for the 1995 movie 12 Monkeys] Last fall, I wrote a post about the Syfy TV series based on the movie 12 Monkeys. After seeing the trailer, I was cautiously […]
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