http://www.comingsoon.net/news/tvnews.php?id=108200 The premise of the movie seems a bit limting to be made into a series. Would this just be "Seven Days" in a space suit?
Not only does the premise not really lend itself to extensibility but does this nearly 20 year old movie really have enough cachet to warrant a series?
It's a pretty awesome film, though I don't know how much clout it has among the general public. But making it into a series? (shudder) They should leave well enough alone.
They will probably only scrape off the basics of the movie. Man from the future is sent to the past to find the origins of the disease believed to have destroyed mankind. While there, he determines the true cause.. does he allow it to happen, or does he interfere with the hope of changing the future. Plenty of episodic stuff there for people to complain about endlessly because the series isn't following the movie.
If there's any future-changing, it won't even be the basics of the movie. This is a terrible idea. The movie had finite loops of time which were resolved perfectly in its running time. Stretching the time indefinitely for weeks and months would dilute that impact of that aspect so much I'd say, why bother? But someone once thought t would be a good idea to make a TV series of Casablanca, too.
Well, in fairness 12 Monkeys is an adaptation of the French short film La Jetee. So something can lack originality and be good. But without the clever script of the film, Terry Gilliam's direction and the performances, I'm not sure that this project will add to much.
Orginallity that'll be the day. We are talking about Hollywood after all. (well ok maybe not hollywood itself)
I a huge fan of the film. I have no idea how this would be turned into a series. Take away Gilliam's style and the fixed time loop, sense of doom imediate doom what else is there? Only thing I can think of Willis' character was mistakenly sent to the wrong time periods. once to a decade earlier and the other all the way to the First World War. Plus there was another travel sent to comin ate with him. Guess they could expand those ideas. I doubt this will last long. There have been a lot of efforts recently to have time travel series. But they never move beyond a poilot or a short run. Usually because the premise is limited to create interesting stories. they need to bring Back Quantum Leap or something similar. That has endless possibilities for period times and stories.
I think it could work as a miniseries or 13-episode series. I don't think it would need to be long-running though.
I'd love this as a 13 episode miniseries series but over the course of years, no thanks. After they fail does the next season take a different person to try again? Lindley, great minds think alike.
You just can't beat, "Jones is my name. I'm in insurance." I hope to hell they won't try. Yes, if you generalize the premise of the film enough there are possibilities...but I think the odds are alarmingly high that it will lose what made the film such a delightful thing to watch. And God help us all if whoever takes the James Cole role (or whatever it's mutated into) is some sort of action hero type.
I think it's better to think of this as inspired by 12 Monkeys. The original movie is great (very underrated) and I think it would lose something in episodic form. But the actual basic concept is perfectly fine for a television show and I have no problem with it.