"24" movie moving forward

[PsychoPere]

Deadline reports that the long-rumored 24 movie may finally become a reality. The script is being written by Mark Bomback, who is expected to turn the script into the studio by the end of the year. Tony Scott was previously said to be attached to direct, but no longer is; instead, the studio has a list of five directors - none named in the article - they are looking at. 24th Century Fox's goal is to start production around April.

I was a big fan of the show during its first few seasons, and I even kept watching right up through the series finale even though the show started its downward slide at least as early as season four. I used to think a jump to film would be a great thing, but after being more or less satisfied with the way the series closed, I'm more ambivalent now about this possibility.

 

[Captaindemotion]

Hmmmm. I'd really like to see a good 24 movie but I've long had my reservations that it will ever happen.

Part of the problem will be picking it up where the tv show left off. Fans of the tv show will want to know how Jack escaped New York, where he's been hiding out, what's happened to Chloe etc. While casual fans will just want a good 2 hour piece of escapism. Another problem is what to do with the real-time motif. Set it over 2 hours, like they did with the Redemption movie or set a 2 hour movie over 24 hours?

I'm inclined to think that this will end up being made but as a tv movie like Redemption. But I'd be delighted to be proven wrong!

 

[Shurik]

I'd watch more 24, in any format. It was highly entertaining even when it descended into complete insanity and abandoned all logic and realism.

 

[Gary Mitchell]

http://www.deadline.com/2011/12/24-...rt-with-kiefer-sutherland-in-jack-bauer-mode/ 24th Century Fox's goal is to start production around April.

Wow, I knew that I should've set my alarm clock.

 

[Trekker4747]

Part of the problem will be picking it up where the tv show left off. Fans of the tv show will want to know how Jack escaped New York, where he's been hiding out, what's happened to Chloe etc. While casual fans will just want a good 2 hour piece of escapism. Another problem is what to do with the real-time motif. Set it over 2 hours, like they did with the Redemption movie or set a 2 hour movie over 24 hours?

The going theory is that the first part of the movie would be 23 hours in "movie time" with the last hour of the movie happening in "real-time."

 

[Harvey]

I've never had my interest in something evaporate so quickly as 24 after it ended. Fox was smart when they began scheduling it in uninterrupted season blocks in the fourth year. Even when the show went of the rails, that provided enough inertia to keep me coming back.

Now, though? I can barely remember the cliffhanger the series ended on (and why did they end it on a cliffhanger again, when they knew it would be cancelled?). Meh.

 

[Mr Pointy Ears]

Wonder if the movie will make x amounts of $$$,would they decide to have a 24 movie every few years?.

 

[Trekker4747]

Wonder if the movie will make x amounts of $$$,would they decide to have a 24 movie every few years?.

Ummm.... yes?

Isn't this pretty much how movie franchise work?

 

[Guy Gardener]

every 2 years they make a another movie set half a second after the finish of the last one?

It worked with Porky's the Next Day, Lord of the Rings Less So.

The format is the star more than the "people".

 

[Dream]

I'll believe that the movie will get done when it is actually released in theaters.

 

[mr.peany]

Eh, I'm a little miffed at this. Especially considering how the show ended. I don't want a movie of Jack on the run from the law. We've had that every season since season 4. Bah. Make Chloe the main star and be done with it.

 

[Captaindemotion]

I've never had my interest in something evaporate so quickly as 24 after it ended. Fox was smart when they began scheduling it in uninterrupted season blocks in the fourth year. Even when the show went of the rails, that provided enough inertia to keep me coming back.

Now, though? I can barely remember the cliffhanger the series ended on (and why did they end it on a cliffhanger again, when they knew it would be cancelled?). Meh.

It wasn't a cliffhanger. It ended with Jack going on the run. The writers said that 24 was always quite tragic and they wanted a suitably sad ending. At the start of Day 8, Jack had a nice life with his daughter and her family. During the course of that day, he had the hope of life with Renee. By the end of the day, Renee was dead and Jack was forced to go on the run, with little, if any, hope of seeing his family again. President Taylor, previously seen as a good woman, had been on the verge of sealing an historic peace deal with fake-Iran but by the end of the day had destroyed her Presidency with her ambition to secure that deal, as she took increasingly wrong 'realpolitik' steps to ensure that it went through.

 

[PsychoPere]

Kiefer Sutherland has provided some information regarding the movie.

[...] production is slated to begin mid-April. At the Television Critics Association press tour, Sutherland revealed about 6 months of time will have passed in Jack Bauer's life between the "24" series finale and the upcoming movie.

[...] the movie will not follow the show's minute-by-minute time format.

 

[23skidoo]

But one of the things that made 24, well, 24, was the time element - the fact it was told in real time over a 24-hour period. That's what made it set it apart (and why they didn't do any more Redemptions). If they're not going to do that (and they could - real-time films have been done before, while Timecode showed it was possible to feature simultaneous action in a movie format) then it's just going to be another violent spy movie.

Alex

 

[Captaindemotion]

^ I think the idea is to set it over a 24 hour period but only the last 40 minutes or so will take place in real-time. Which is fair enough. Redemption showed the limitations that can be placed on a real time movie, as did the Johnny Depp movie 'Nick of Time', which pre-dated 24.

 

[Enterprise is Great]

Now Jack Bauer can travel over a larger area. He gets on a plane and time jumps forward and real time could start again.

 

[Rush Limborg]

So...Tony Scott was going to direct?

Shame. He's one great director. Top Gun...Days of Thunder...Unstoppable...True Romance....

Hm...I wonder: would Quentin Tarantino be interested? Because tings like "moral ambiguity" and "revenge" are right up his alley....

 

[Skellington]

I wonder if they'll take an all-or-nothing approach and kill off Bauer. Better to burn out than fade away, as they say. Anyway, given the tendency to fast-forward between seasons, he should be pushing fifty or so by the end of Day Eight.

 

[Captaindemotion]

So...Tony Scott was going to direct?

Shame. He's one great director. Top Gun...Days of Thunder...Unstoppable...True Romance....

Hm...I wonder: would Quentin Tarantino be interested? Because tings like "moral ambiguity" and "revenge" are right up his alley....

I could see Scott doing a 24 movie, on the basis of entries on his CV like Man On Fire or Crimson Tide. And we might have got Val Kilmer or Mickey Rourke as baddies!

Much as I love QT, I don't see him doing a 24 movie, nor do I think he'd be right for it. For one thing, I think he'd want to do his own stylistic take on it. He's said that he wouldn't do a comic strip adaptation, as he'd have to make the character his own and would just piss off purists. So I can't see him making a 24 movie without radically changing the formula. Can you imagine Jack Bauer discussing pop culture or lots of close-up shots of Chloe's feet?

I wonder if they'll take an all-or-nothing approach and kill off Bauer. Better to burn out than fade away, as they say. Anyway, given the tendency to fast-forward between seasons, he should be pushing fifty or so by the end of Day Eight.

As regards Jack's age, I think the writers have said something along the lines of he is always whatever age Keifer is. So, for example, in season 1 (first airing in November 2001), Keifer would have been a few months short of his 35th birthday, so Jack would have been this age too. But, as 24 fans know, the gaps between seasons were longer in 'series time' than they were in our time (most notably in between seasons 6-7, which jumped 4 years). So while Jack should have been about 50-ish by season 8 (it aired in January 2010 but I'm too lazy to work out all the gaps between the seasons in 24 time), according to the writers, he'd have been the same age as Keifer, i.e. 44.

 

[Enterprise is Great]

Kiefer Sutherland reveals 24 movie info to TV Guide