A Popular Brad Pitt Film Is Becoming A Television Series: Will It Work?

The first Oscar for which Brad Pitt was nominated was for his work in the Terry Gilliam-directed sci-fi thriller, 12 Monkeys, which also starred Bruce Willis. Now, SyFy is looking to turn it into a television series, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

But don’t expect the creators behind the series to replicate the Brad Pitt movie. Co-executive producer Terry Matalas said it will be “a complete re-imagining.”

“We were all big fans of the original film and had a deep love and respect for the material,” Matalas added. “We didn’t want to just redo what the movie does.”

Brad Pitt won a Golden Globe for his performance as mental patient Jeffrey Goines. For the series, the gender of the character is going to be switched with Suits and Pretty Little Liars actress Amanda Schull taking on the role made popular by Pitt. Matalas told Quartz that he and the rest of the crew wondered how anybody could “possibly do that role again,” and that’s when they came up with a different approach to it.

“And one night, we were sitting there and we were like, ‘What if we gave that opportunity to a woman and really saw what they could do with it?'” he said.

Turning the popular Brad Pitt film into a television show has been in the works for some time, said executive producer Richard Suckle, who worked as a production assistant on the original film.

“The idea was something that came up pretty soon after the movie was made,” he added.

But there was some trouble securing the rights to the short film, La Jetée, on which 12 Monkeys is based. Years had passed and Matalas and co-executive producer wrote a script called Splinter, which was heavily inspired by the Brad Pitt movie. They then landed on the decision to make that script into the television version of 12 Monkeys.

The series, which debuts in January 2015, will certainly have time-traveling like the Brad Pitt movie did, said creator Natalie Chaidez. Some of the eras it looks to explore include the 1980s and World War I.

“We will definitely travel around [time],” Chaidez said.

And since people remember the Brad Pitt film very well, actor Aaron Stanford, who takes over the Bruce Willis role, believes it could help with the series being a success.

“People recognize it and they recognize it as something of quality,” Stanford added. “So, it’s now our responsibility to uphold that brand and continue on and make this a quality program.”

Brad Pitt has yet to give his thoughts on 12 Monkeys being turned into a series.

In a related report from The Inquisitr, Brad Pitt will next be seen in the World War II film, Fury, which also stars Shia LaBeouf and Logan Lerman.

Pitt will play an Army sergeant named Wardaddy, who leads a crew of soldiers on a deadly mission inside Nazi Germany. The film releases on November 14.

[Image via Comic Book Resources]