With the Coen Brothers’ Fargo coming to FX in less than two weeks, another much-loved film from the mid-90s is also making its way to television with Syfy ordering 12 episodes of a new show based on Terry Gilliam’s 1996 time-travel thriller 12 Monkeys, which starred Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt.
As with the movie, itself based on the French film La Jetee, the show will follow a time traveler from the future, played by Aaron Stanford–Pyro from the “X-Men” movies who also starred in Nikita–who returns to present day to stop the source of a deadly plague that will destroy mankind.
Also starring Amanda Schull from “Pretty Little Liars,” Stanford’s “Nikita” co-star Noah Bean and Kirk Acevedo from “Fringe” and “Oz,” the pilot was written by Terry Matalas and Travis Fickett (who’ve also written for “Nikita”) and directed by Jeffrey Reiner, who will all executive produce the series with showrunner Natalie Chaidez (“Heroes,” “V”). Charles Roven, who produced the original film, will act as an executive producer along with his American Hustle producing partner Richard Suckle.
Syfy president David Howe stated, “’12 Monkeys is a captivating time travel adventure and high stakes race against the clock. We are thrilled to add it to our slate of engaging and thought-provoking new scripted projects including the recently-announced event series Ascension’ and the second season renewal of ‘Helix from Ron Moore.”
