We all know that the distant future is going to get rough for this planet. The thing in question here is whether or not Syfy’s small screen take on 12 Monkeys is going to make the future better or worse. Syfy has announced a finalized start date for the science-fiction mystery, which will debut on Friday, January 16, at 9 p.m. ET. Is this how you guys want your weekends to begin?
Syfy also released a promo image to go with the press release, which you can see below. I wouldn’t mind having a prop bulletin board in my house with a sole purpose of having someone spray-paint an Army of the Twelve Monkeys symbol on it.
The series stars Aaron Stanford as James Cole, a prisoner in 2043 who is used as a guinea pig for an untested form of time travel. He must go back to the past (or the present, to us normal folk) to try and figure out the source of a deadly virus that wipes out most of the planet’s population. The fate of the world rests on this one guy’s shoulders, and he soon meets up with Dr. Cassandra Railly (Amanda Schull), who eventually buys into Cole's crazy stories and helps him on his quest. Tom Noonan plays a villain, but his misdeeds may not be the ones that started all this. Emily Hampshire will star as Jennifer Goines, the batshit loony mental patient based on Brad Pitt’s role in the original film. As you can imagine, this version is sticking to the film's plot but also keeping things open-ended enough to justify itself.
Those heading to New York Comic Con this weekend will have a chance to hear more about 12 Monkeys, as Syfy and Universal Cable Productions will be hosting a panel for the series on Saturday, October 11. Producers Natalie Chaidez, Tarry Matalas and Travis Fickett will be there, along with Hampshire, who will discuss her role, and how she will or won’t play into the Twelve Monkeys conspiracy.
This is one of my favorite movies, so its existence as a TV show is still disconcerting. But the trailer below, while it doesn’t compare in the least to Terry Gilliam’s, is still interesting enough in its own right.
Even if you don't have any time machines at your disposal, you can still find 12 Monkeys when it debuts on Syfy on Friday, January 16.
