Fans of questionable ethics and people shouting unintelligibly into mobile phones have permission to cautiously rejoice over the news that Fox has apparently entered into negotiations with Kiefer Sutherland – no doubt in a sweaty interrogation room while he prepares a series of painful looking devices – with the aim of returning him to the forefront of action television in his career defining role as Victor in Brotherhood Of Justice. Wait, no, that’s not right. Is that right? That can’t be right.
Basically, whatever happens with Brotherhood Of Justice, Kiefer Sutherland may also be returning to the role of Jack Bauer, he of hit TV show 24. What’s changed between all that talk of a 24 movie a while back and this announcement today? Well, Kiefer Sutherland’s role in Touch, also on Fox, has been drastically scaled down due to the entire show being cancelled.
Now that he has some more time on his hands, he can fully commit to playing Jack Bauer. It was the whole reason director Antoine Fuqua quit the 24 movie, so with that out of the way nothing stands between Kiefer Sutherland and the rest of the gang getting back together to create some more morally questionable programming.
But what format would such a show take? Deadline reports that, in keeping with the 24 title and theme of the show, a possibility would be retooling it as a “limited event series”, which could be interpreted as a shorter (i.e. not 24 episode) series – maybe 11 or 12 – which would allow for a higher budget.
What difference would this make to the show? Well, it would mean that Kim probably wouldn’t be able to get herself kidnapped two or three times in the space of one day, a change for which we’d all be grateful.
This ties in with what Kevin Reilly had to say back in January about Fox’s renewed commitment to TV, and the format those shows will take. Wait, you don’t know Kevin Reilly? He’s the Chairman of Entertainment at Fox, moron. Here’s what he said:
With top-notch auspices and feature-quality production plans, WAYWARD PINES and BLOOD BROTHERS represent exactly the kind of high-impact, 10-to 12-part events we set out to developwhen we entered the limited series business… these two series are the first of many big ideas, big names and big talent that you can anticipate will be on our air in the next 12-24 months.
Nothing concerning this latest iteration of 24 is set in stone as of yet but, like Jack Bauer himself, don’t let that stop you from diving in head first and beating up some innocent people. Live long and prosper.
