Spoilers and news for the hit FOX television show 24
Buried under news of Mykelti Williamson being cast as CTU Director Brian Hastings, was also word that Doug Hutchison would be joining the cast of 24 season 8 as a terrorist.
Also joining the cast next season: APA client Doug Hutchison (“The Burrowers,” “Punisher: War Zone”), in a recurring role as Davros, a dangerous European terrorist.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
The late Bill Buchanan’s heir apparent has been named, and it’s Mykelti Williamson.
The actor, whose credits include TV’s Boomtown and CSI: NY and the Sundance hit Black Dynamite, is joining Fox’s 24 in the series regular role of Brian Hastings, the boss man of CTU’s New York outpost.
Hastings, says Fox, is MBA-schooled and wields a razor-sharp intellect.
Previous Season 8 castings include Freddie Prinze Jr. (as the head of CTU Field Ops/a wannabe Jack Bauer) and Jennifer Westfeldt (as an ambitious newswoman).
24 kicks off Jack Bauer’s bad day in the Big Apple on Jan. 17, 2010.
Source: TV Guide
Sources said Prinze is joining the cast of Fox’s “24″ as a regular, playing Davis Cole, a recently returned Marine who runs CTU Field Ops and wants to follow in Jack Bauer’s (Kiefer Sutherland) footsteps.
On the real-time drama, whose upcoming eighth season started production Wednesday, Prinze joins fellow new cast additions Anil Kapoor, who plays a Middle East leader; Chris Diamantopoulos, as the president’s new chief of staff; and John Boyd as a CTU systems analyst. All of them are regulars, while Jennifer Westfeldt has come aboard as a recurring, playing a a journalist.
Also cast as a recurring on the 20th TV/Imagine series is Nazneen Contractor as Kapoor’s daughter.
Prinze, repped by ICM and Brillstein, recently co-starred on the ABC comedy pilot “No Heroics.”
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
“Cherry Jones offered a preview of the first two scripts for next season’s 24 which begins shooting this week. About 18 months have passed since the terrors of Season 7. Jack and Renee still haven’t hooked up, but the world is a better place. Cherry’s character, President Taylor, will be at the United Nations in New York City to sign a peace agreement with a Middle East leader played by Anil Kapoor. “It has more to do with the state of the world, not just the state of us,” Cherry says. Kiefer Sutherland says it’s the first 24 scenario “I actually hope happens.”
Source: TV Guide Magazine
Although director Jon Cassar will not be involved with 24 Season 8, he’s got the inside scoop on the directors of the four-hour premiere.
24 Season 8 – starts to shoot today without me – the first time I’m not directing on the first day since season 1. Have a good one 24 crew.
Brad Turner is directing the first two episodes of 24 then Milan Cheylov will direct the next two. In very experienced hands.
Turner has been with the series since the third season and has directed 38 episodes total (ten in Season 7). Cheylov has directed four episodes in Season 7 and six total.
Source: Jon Cassar’s Twitter (1, 2)
At the very bottom of a Hollywood Reporter article on Freddie Prinze Jr. is word that Nazneen Contractor has been cast for the role of Kayla Hashemi:
Also cast as a recurring on the 20th TV/Imagine series is Nazneen Contractor as Kapoor’s daughter.
Here is the information on Kayla Hashemi from the casting call:
Kayla Hashemi, Middle Eastern, 20s. Kayla is the humble and shy daughter of the President of a Middle Eastern country. She is close with her mother and wants to do anything she can to gain her mother’s approval. Kayla is somewhat old-fashioned and traditional. She is also very defensive of her father and gets upset whenever anyone begins to critize him.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
Jennifer Westfeldt and John Boyd have joined the cast of Fox’s “24.”
On the upcoming eighth season of the real-time drama, to be set in New York, “Kissing Jessica Stein” star Westfeldt will play the recurring role of Meredith Reed, an ambitious journalist with ties to Arman Hashemi (Anil Kapoor), a Middle East leader who comes to the U.S. on a peacemaking mission.
Boyd (“The Notorious Bettie Page”) will be a regular on the 20th TV/Imagine series, playing CTU systems analyst Jonah Schwartz.
Westfeldt and Boyd join previously cast Kapoor and Chris Diamantopoulos as the “24″ producers are filling nine major new roles for Season 8, slated to begin production today.
Westfeldt recently recurred on ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” and launched a production company with “Mad Men” star Jon Hamm.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
According to my watch, it’s time for the second piece of casting on 24’s eighth season!
Chris Diamantopoulos — best known as Debra Messing’s gay BFF on The Starter Wife — has been tapped to play the series regular role of Rob Weiss, the argumentative and tough new Chief of Staff to President Allison Taylor (Cherry Jones). He replaces Taylor’s current C.O.S., Ethan Kanin, who snatched his job back in last Monday’s finale after the prez’s psycho daughter, Olivia, was taken into federal custody.
As I previously reported, Day 8’s action will switch from Washington D.C. to New York City and center on an assassination plot against a visiting foreign leader (Slumdog Millionaire’s Anil Kapoor, the new season’s first piece of casting).
Source: EW.com
FOX has been quick to lock down a date for the 24 Season 8 premiere. The upcoming season will debut in January (as it has for the past several years), yet the first episode will air on Sunday at 9PM ET/PT rather than the usual 8PM.
It was also announced that the eighth season of 24 will return to the FOX schedule with a two-night, four-hour premiere as part of a special extended primetime on Sunday, Jan. 17 (9:00-11:00 PM ET/PT), immediately following the premiere of HUMAN TARGET. The next installment of the Emmy Award-winning series starring Kiefer Sutherland will unfold in New York City, amidst the shadows of the Statue of Liberty and the United Nations.
Source: TVbytheNumbers
Fox studio chairman Gary Newman has stated that they’d like to find a way to extend 24 beyond the eighth season, suggesting that the series could continue “in some slightly altered form”.
How many times can Jack Bauer defeat terrorists?
It’s a question on the minds of fans as they await the finale of the seventh season on Monday night. It’s also a question that some at Fox will be asking as production starts on the eighth season.
Fox is expected to include “24″ when it announces its 2009-10 season schedule in New York on Monday. The diminished ratings for the series and the potential legal trouble for Kiefer Sutherland, the actor who plays Mr. Bauer, have led some to suggest a series finale is on the horizon.
Gary Newman, the Fox studio chairman, said in an interview last week that “we want to find a way to extend it beyond season eight.” It may not be easy. The show has come under criticism in past season for repetitive plot lines, among other attributes.
“As we get into season eight, we will be talking to our show-runner, to Kiefer, to the network, and trying to figure out whether the same model should continue beyond season eight, or whether this is a franchise that can benefit from re-creation,” he said. He suggested that “24″ could continue “in some slightly altered form,” but would not elaborate.
He added, “We think it’s a fantastic franchise with incredibly strong elements.”
Fox will release the seventh season on DVD Tuesday, in what is believed to be the first series to be released on DVD immediately after the season finale. More in Monday’s edition of The New York Times.
Source: NYTimes.com
With the press having just watched the 24 Season 7 finale, show-runner Howard Gordon is already letting people know what’s in store for the upcoming Season 8 (which begins filming in just over a week).
When asked on whether the famous CTU ringtone will return, Gordon said “I don’t know actually, we haven’t talked about that. But that’s a good question. I think we will – I think you kinda need that ringtone, don’t ya? Thank you, you’ve just saved the show!” Gordon joked.
Here we have the casting calls for many new major characters in 24 Season 8.
“24″, the hit show from Fox Network, is now casting major ongoing roles for the 2010 season.
From the producer of “Arrested Development”, this stylish show is about Counter Terrorist Unit agent Jack Bauer as he struggles to protect the nation from terrorist threats. “24″ stars Kiefer Sutherland and Carlos Bernard. It is being written by Joel Surnow and Howard Gordon, and directed by Brad Turner. The show is produced by Brian Grazer, Evan Katz, Howard Gordon, Robert Cochran, and Joel Surnow for Imagine Entertainment and 20th Century Fox Television.
ROLES AVAILABLE:
FEMALES
- Dayna Pakkala, any ethnicity, 20s. Dayna is an intelligent and yet down-to-earth data analyst at the Counter Terrorism Agency. She is great at her position and is respected by her colleagues at the agency. Dayna is romantically seeing her fellow agent Davis Cole, who recently returned from serving in the military. This woman has a personal history that she keeps hidden from the people she knows. SERIES REGULAR
- Diane Reed, Caucasian, 30s – 40s. Diane is a well-educated, respected, pretty television journalist who is a regular contributor to a show similar to “60 Minutes”. She has always been a very ambitious journalist. She comes from an upper-middle-class background and has a touch of arrogance about her. Diane is romantically seeing the President of a Middle Eastern country. SERIES REGULAR
- Kayla Hashemi, Middle Eastern, 20s. Kayla is the humble and shy daughter of the President of a Middle Eastern country. She is close with her mother and wants to do anything she can to gain her mother’s approval. Kayla is somewhat old-fashioned and traditional. She is also very defensive of her father and gets upset whenever anyone begins to critize him.
- Sondra Hashemi, Middle Eastern, 40s – 50s. Sondra is the pretty and loyal wife of President Hashemi. At first she does not seem to be happy with her husband, but we eventually see that there is a very real bond and respect between them under the surface.
MALES
- Jonah Schwartz, any ethnicity, 20s. Jonah is a quirky and brilliant Systems Analyst at the government’s Counter Terrorism Unit. He looks more like a college grad student rather than a top secret undercover agent. He is somehow hip and geeky at the same time. Jonah is an expert at computer technology. SERIES REGULAR
- Rob Weiss, any ethnicity, 30s. Weiss is the argumentative and tough Chief of Staff to President Allison Taylor. He speaks his mind and does not worry about being polite. Weiss is quick to strike back against the President’s enemies. He is a bit high-strung at times, but he does a great job protecting the interests of the administration. SERIES REGULAR
- Davis Cole, any ethnicity, Mid 20s – 30s. Davis is a former military guy who is now in charge of the Counter Terrorism Unit’s Field Operations. He has recently returned from time in the Marines in the Middle East, and he is now readjusting to civilian life. Davis aspires to eventually take a similar career path as Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland). He looks up to Bauer and admires him. Davis is also romantically seeing his colleague Dayna Pakkala. SERIES REGULAR
- Brian Hastings, any ethnicity, 30s – 40s. Brian is a clean-cut and businesslike man who is in charge of the Counter Terrorism Unit’s New York City office. He has a very keen and focused sense of intelligence about him. He choses his words very carefully when he speaks and never overeacts to anything. He seems like someone who would be comfortable trading stocks or running a company, but instead he has chosen to help contribute to running the agency. SERIES REGULAR
- Farhad Hashemi, Middle Eastern, 30s – 40s. Hashemi is the Secretary of State of a fictional Middle Eastern country, and his brother is the President. He does not completely trust the Americans, and he is reluctant to enter into a peace treaty with the United States.
Source: Gotcast.com