Jack Bauer won’t be sprinting to theaters anytime soon, as 20th Century Fox has turned down the first script for a 24 film.
It was no coincidence that the series finale of the Fox show 24 was the perfect jumping-off point for a feature film. That project has encountered a setback, though, as 20th Century Fox has rejected the first submitted script for the feature film follow-up. The writer responsible for bringing 24 to the big screen, who now has to go back to the proverbial drawing board, is Billy Ray, the writer of Flightplan, Breach, and State of Play.
The film will star Kiefer Sutherland, reprising his role as CTU agent Jack Bauer, and Tony Scott (Top Gun, Man on Fire, Unstoppable) is attached to direct. Judging by the way he tiptoes around the project, it seems like Howard Gordon, the producer of both the series and, presumably the film, thinks it may never happen. Gordon tells Entertainment Weekly, “there is talk about re-approaching it. I understand Tony Scott is meeting with Kiefer to talk about ideas. People are still talking about it.”
In talking to EW about the series finale last May, Sutherland noted that the movie would not follow the show’s signature real-time format, explaining, “something we’ve dealt with in the series is how the crisis always has to come to us because we don’t have time to move anywhere in a real time world. In a two-hour representation of the 24 world, planes, trains, and automobiles all of a sudden become a factor because you are not required to go scene by scene in real time.” I will miss the real-time aspect, but as long as the film still has lots of Bauer shouting “damn it, Chloe!” I’m there.
Source: Entertainment Weekly
