12 Monkeys TV Pilot Gets a Director

It looks like Syfy will be moving forward with its plan to turn the cult movie 12 Monkeys into a TV show. For a movie with such a devoted following, you would expect a popular director with credits to his name or maybe a young up-and-commer who has some potential to be the next nerd demigod. Enter Jeffery Reiner. Reiner, while not old, has been in the business since 1987 working mainly as a producer and an editor for a number of TV shows.

Reiner began his directing career with Mighty Morphin Power Rangers in the early 90’s from there he went on to direct a number of other TV shows including Columbo. He is has most notably directed for Friday Night Lights and Capricorn.

With the choice of Reiner to direct, it feels like the pilot may be the end of 12 Monkeys. This is not a shot at Reiner, I am not criticizing his talent, or calling him a bad choice. The reason I say this is because of Reiner’s recent track record with pilots. He was the director of the trashed NBC WonderWoman show in 2011, and he was also behind the untouched Sixth Gun pilot earlier this year. 12 Monkeys fans must hope that the Reiner curse doesn’t hit their show.

Reiner may not be the most prestigious director in the TV community, but they could have done worse. The most glaring problem with the show is Terry Gillam’s (the director of12 Monkeys) opinion of the show.

“It’s a very dumb idea. If it was going to be any good, it would have to be written by David and Janet Peoples, who wrote the film.”

With the harsh words from the original director, and really only some dead pilots to the name of the new one, I would not be surprised if 12 Monkeys doesn’t get to see the light of day.

Source: DigialSpy, Terry Gillam Quote