12 Monkeys is a tv series adaptation of Terry Gilliam’s 1995 feature film of the same name. The movie starred Bruce Willis as James Cole, a convicted criminal in a post-apocalyptic future where the Earth’s population is forced to live underground after a deadly virus. In a bid to earn a pardon, Cole uses the imperfect science of time travel to help collect information on the virus released by the Army of the Twelve Monkeys. Feature film producers Chuck Roven and Richard Suckle of Atlas Entertainment — one of the production companies on board the Universal film — submitted the pitch, which is being eyed as a 90-minute backdoor pilot that would eventually lead to a straight-to-series order in a fashion similar to Syfy’s Battlestar Galactica. Terry Matalas (Nikita, Terra Nova, Star Trek: Enterprise) and Travis Fickett (Nikita, Terra Nova) will pen the script, with 24′s Jon Cassar on board to direct the project, which hails from Universal Cable Productions.
