Kiefer Sutherland and Greg Ellis in The Confession

Kiefer Sutherland spoke about the possibility of a second season of The Confession during a conference call for Touch. Here’s what he had to say:

I would love to do a second part of The Confession. There certainly is a story there that Brad Mirman, who wrote [the series], and I have discussed. John Hurt had a wonderful time on the show as I did and so we would both love to do that.

I think the real challenge, because I think The Confession was from a production standpoint quite high end with regards to a lot of things that have been produced for the Internet. The real difficulty is trying to figure out how to galvanize and pull in an audience because the Internet is so fragmented that there is no real kind of central post, if you will. The movie business has theaters. Television has set scheduling. The Internet is kind of when you want it, how you want it and trying to really corral an audience was what we found to be the most difficult. But I think that that’s starting to explain itself. The more things are produced for the Internet, the clearer it becomes how to go about finding that audience.

If you missed the first season of The Confession, it’s just been released on DVD, Netflix instant streaming, and the iTunes Store.

Source: Examiner (thanks Seba!)

Elisha Cuthbert, 24's Kim Bauer

Kiefer Sutherland was interviewed on Ryan Seacrest’s radio show about his new television series Touch and dropped some new tidbits about the 24 feature film.

“I don’t believe in anything until it’s absolutely finished, but we’re scheduled to start towards the end of April. We have a fantastic script, and we’re putting all of the pieces together rather quickly. And as soon as the first season for Touch is finished, we would be planning to start moving into that.”

Seacrest asks “Can you give me two names of people besides you that will be in the 24 movie?” and Kiefer responds “There are a few people coming back, but I wouldn’t want to ruin that. Yeah, I don’t know if I could do that. I don’t know if I’m going to get in real trouble. But as it stands now, yeah, there is room for someone like Elisha Cuthbert, and there certainly is room for Chloe, and we’ll have to see what happens.”

Source: Ryan Seacrest (thanks Rob!)

24 showrunner Howard Gordon was interviewed on Good Day LA and of course was asked about the movie.

“The movie is just a little premature to announce it, but I think we’re all marching in that direction. There’s a script. And it’ll have to happen after Kiefer wraps on Touch. So we have a window and I hope you hear something soon.”

Full interview at Good Day LA

Kiefer Sutherland was interviewed on Live with Jimmy Kimmel about his new series Touch, and of course the 24 movie. He once again claims they are aiming for an April start date, this time getting a little more specific and saying mid-April.

One interesting new reveal, is that despite the extra freedom of a movie versus a TV show when it comes to cursing, the current draft of the script has Jack Bauer swearing only a single time. This could potentially mean that 20th Century FOX is aiming for wider PG-13 release (like with Live Free or Die Hard) rather than making it R.

Kiefer Sutherland smiles when he talks about anticipating the late-April/early-May start of production on the big-screen “24″ movie. “That’s like going home,” he says of getting back into Jack Bauer’s skin.

It’s been more than five years since the “24″ team first set its sights on making a feature. Sutherland acknowledges, “That process has taken us so long; it’s such a complicated script to write. Normally, we have 24 hours to tell a story. Trying to condense it into two hours involves a lot of hard choices: What kind of story do you want to tell? How political do you want to make it? How character-driven do you want to make it?”

The star was also was among the notables on hand at Fox’s party at the historic Castle Green Hotel in Pasadena, Calif., where he chatted away gamely and amiably even though a small group of reporters pretty much backed him into a small space behind a grand piano. He elaborated on some of what he talked about at the earlier press conference — including the “24″ film.

As far as the answers to all those questions about how political and/or character-driven the big screen “24″ will be, he laughed and said, “You’ll have to wait and see it.” He said that several “great actors have expressed interest in (acting in) it, either as an ally or villain.”

Source: The National Ledger

Anil Kapoor was on G4TV’s Attack of the Show where he talked about his role in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol and the upcoming Indian adaptation of 24. Kapoor reveals that former 24 showrunner Howard Gordon was instrumental in helping him secure the television rights to the franchise.

You can watch the entire interview over at G4TV. Thanks to Andrew for the heads up!

Mary Lynn Rajskub was interviewed on the Marc Macon podcast and she was briefly asked about the 24 movie (nothing new on that front) and working with Kiefer Sutherland. When asked whether she got along with her co-star, she at first hesitated to answer with an “Ummm..” and then continued:

Kiefer and I like each other; I would go so far as to say we love each other in that respect. But at the same time… I really care about him, but our relationship never changed, it never went past a certain point. I think I was always a little bit intimidated by him. He would probably say, “Oh why would you be [intimated]?” Um… But we never fully hung out or fully had a conversation the entire time. And a lot of other people who were on the crew and the cast it was like a family that you watched [over] the course of doing that intense show, that many years. You’ve watched marriages and deaths and births and you do get to know everybody.

Here is the six minute segment that discusses 24 fans and Kiefer:

For the entire interview check out episode 229 of the WTF with Marc Maron Podcast.

James Cromwell as Phillip Bauer in 24 Season 6

Actor James Cromwell who played Phillip Bauer in 24 Season 6 has some harsh words for the producers of the series, voicing disapproval of his character and claiming the writers lacked imagination:

You had some displeasure working on the series “24.” Could you go into that a bit?
I had never seen the show before, and I took it because my agent said it was important to do, that it would be a good thing. They paid me a lot of money to do it. And then I’ve taken my son captive and I’m torturing him, then I was going to take my grandson captive and threaten him. So I went to the producers and I said, “Look, are there any redeeming qualities to this character?” They looked at me as though I was nuts, I was asking something bizarre. And then on the floor of the set I saw this two-star general and asked him what he was doing there, and explained that he had come to talk to them about the presentation of torture, which I thought was eminently reasonable and necessary. And their reaction was flip, to my way of thinking. And to me they missed a great opportunity, which they could have done in the last season, to rectify what they had done — where he becomes disillusioned with this and makes every effort to change his techniques. It could’ve been a great contribution, but they didn’t have the imagination for that.

Source: Metro

Sarah Clarke as Nina Myers

Here’s a new interview with Sarah Clarke talking about 24. She reveals that Nina Myers was originally intended to appear in ten more episodes of the third season (bringing the character all the way to the season finale rather than being killed by Jack in episode 14). But both she and Kiefer agreed that it would feel unrealistic if Nina was able to escape again.

I want to ask you about your past role in the hugely popular show 24. As the feisty bad girl Nina Myers, you were infamously knocked off by agent Jack Bauer. Do the 24 fans still react to you as that character?
They absolutely do. People were really taken by her. I’m very flattered and it’s funny because that role really took shape as the series went on. They certainly didn’t plan for her to be the way she was, so for me it was a wild ride and it was one of the first bigger TV jobs that I’d done, so I was very green. It was a very exciting time to be involved in something like that. But I have to say it’s also a character that by the third season, they really had to turn her into a bad guy. They just kept ramping it up every season to a point where I was like, “OK, I’m exhausted.” Originally they were going to keep me on for another ten episodes and I said, “Just don’t keep me on to torture me.” It was before kids, so I didn’t even have that resonating through me, but after a while it takes it’s toll and in the end, I think they realized that if I did get away that last time it just would start to feel false. So they gave me a great arc and I was very appreciative of it. And what I did like about it is that because we didn’t know that she was who she was, you kind of saw someone falling apart, and that’s real to me.

To me, there’s always a reason why people do things. They’re not just inherently bad. And you have to make them real in some way. That’s why when she started getting cartoon-ish, I never wanted it to go there. It was crazy some of the stuff they planned for the third season and I just said, “No we can’t!” {laughs}. And luckily Kiefer Sutherland agreed with me.

So given the choice, would you want your daughter to be involved with Jack Bauer, Edward Cullen or Jacob Black?
Oh, that’s a funny question {laughs}. Good God! They’re all pretty lethal. I don’t know. I might just ask her to go be a nun. {laughs}.

Source: Popstar

Alex Gansa

Former 24 writer and producer Alex Gansa (who created Showtime’s Homeland along with Howard Gordon) was interviewed about the recently announced Indian adaptation of the series. Here’s what he had to say:

THR: What are your thoughts about this 24 production in India?
Gansa: You know, Howard [Gordon], who created the show with me, he knows a lot more about that than I do. I know that Anil [Kapoor], who played the Iranian president in the last season of 24. He, after being on the set of 24, really decided that he wanted to play Jack Bauer in India.

So I understand that it’s up and running, that they’re going ahead. I think it’s great. I think it’s very cool. I’m actually dying to see how they do it because that part of the world, of course, is so interesting with the terrorist attacks in Mumbai. And it’s going to be fascinating to see how a half-Hindu, half-Muslim country deals with these issues of terrorism on the ground. I think it’s going to be fascinating. You know? Whether there’ll be singing or dancing is another issue. I don’t know. It’s going to be fun, though.

THR: So, how involved is Howard going to be in it?
Gansa: I don’t think he’s involved at all.

Source: THR

Here’s a radio interview in which Kiefer Sutherland talks about the 24 movie. Both he and former 24 showrunner Howard Gordon have been “very involved” in shepherding the project, which was written by Billy Ray.

“We’re gonna hopefully start production in April on the film, and that’ll be out later on in the year. We’re still a few months away, but we’ve got a script that we’re very excited about and we’re moving forward.”

When the interviewer asks Kiefer why the delay, Kiefer blamed his upcoming Fox television series Touch. “It’s something that kind of took up a lot of space for us to do, and that is as responsible as anything for us having to push the movie back about seven months,” said Kiefer.

(Thanks Rob for sending this in!)

Mary Lynn Rajskub has done an interview with TheInsider.com about her new show webseries Dicki, and of course is asked about the 24 movie as well. Despite Kiefer Sutherland claiming the screenplay was finished ten days ago (meaning characters would be locked down), Mary Lynn has yet to be contacted.

Mary Lynn might be pulling double duty soon since Kiefer Sutherland recently said that a 24 movie script was just about done — which came as news to his former co-star. “There have been no phone calls, no conversations, but I would love to read the script and take it from there. That show changed my life, there’s no reason I wouldn’t go back.”

But Mary Lynn did have one character caveat for returning: “They have to promise to make Chloe a weird stripper. I want to be mostly nude, because that’s where I am in my career right now.”

Source: TheInsider.com

Just days ago Kiefer Sutherland revealed they are very close to having a finished script, and now Howard Gordon has backed that up by saying “there is a script” and things are “definitely moving forward”. It also looks like he will be involved in some fashion.

Do you think a 24 movie will ever actually happen?
If the movie happens, I’ll certainly be a part of it. Kiefer [Sutherland] also has his own show now (Touch on FOX) and there are a lot of things that would have to fall into place. But, those things are definitely moving forward. Imagine and FOX are talking, and there is a script that we’re re-approaching right now.

Source: Collider

Good news 24 fans – Kiefer Sutherland has revealed the 24 movie script is “very close” to completion.

When will we see the much talked about and anticipated big screen version of 24?
We are coming very close to having a finished script. That’s been the most difficult thing. You have to remember that we have 24 hours to explain the stories in 24 and so trying to condense that into a two-hour film version has been a real shift in gear for us.

We were originally trying to make it too big and put too much into it – but once we relaxed, we found out how to tell that story. So yes we definitely do plan on making the film.

Did you have any idea, at the start of 24, how it was going to captivate audiences worldwide?
It is seen all over the globe and to be able to be a part of a project that transcended languages and cultures over a long sustained period of time has been great. It was the largest audience I have ever had and it was an absolute thrill to work on that show.

But it also changed things for me. It did so much for my confidence. For those reasons alone I will be forever in debt to the experience I’ve had with 24.

Are you still enjoying working in television as well as film?
I like doing television – some of the best work I am seeing right now is on television. TV is where it’s going. As long as the scripts are interesting I don’t care where they are shown.

Source: The Telegraph

Variety has a nice writeup on Howard Gordon’s new show Homeland. I’ve seen the pilot and think the show is fantastic – worth checking out when it premieres on October 2nd after Dexter. Here’s their full interview with Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa, two ex-24 writers:

Howard Gordon can’t seem to shake visions of waterboarding and dirty bombs.

The “24″ showrunner and exec producer wasted little time between ending Jack Bauer’s eight-year run as a rogue counterterrorist agent and launching Showtime’s new terrorism-themed series “Homeland” with his longtime friend and cohort Alex Gansa — a mere 15 months, to be exact.

Gordon was knee-deep in the quest to keep fictional America safe from nuclear, biological, chemical and cyber threats when his agent, WME’s Rick Rosen, called and announced, “I have your next show.” Rosen, who reps the Tel Aviv company that owns the underlying rights to the Israeli version of “Homeland,” thought the controversial series was ripe for translation.

One day after wrapping the “24″ finale, Gordon and fellow “24″ exec producer Gansa met at an L.A. coffee shop and began writing the pilot on spec. The series, which bows Oct. 2 in Showtime’s coveted post-”Dexter” slot, covers the same ground as on “24″ but this time the war-on-terror depictions are more gritty and based less on imagination.

“Both ’24′ and ‘Homeland’ are about terrorism and a counterterrorist, in particular, but the world today is a very different world than the one Jack Bauer occupied when we first came on the scene,” explains Gordon from his office on the Fox lot, where he occupies the so-called “haunted house” suite formerly used by Shawn Ryan and David E. Kelley. “As compelling as the real-time premise of ’24′ was, it was also outlandish. ’24′ was a very pulpy kind of experience. ‘Homeland’ exists in a place that feels more real and more threatening.”

In the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, film and TV auds have largely avoided fare that has hewed too closely to the evening news. Despite big-name talent and positive reviews, pics such as “In the Valley of Elah” and “Rendition” and skeins like “Over There” met a tepid response.

But Gansa insists that as attitudes about the terrorist threat are beginning to change, so too must the content that depicts it.

“In the wake of 9/11, there was this idea in America that we must respond to the threat of terrorism in a muscular, powerful kind of way, and that was Jack Bauer and ’24,’ ” says Gansa. “Ten years later, Osama Bin Laden has been found and killed, and the country is taking stock. Did we react overact? Our thinking as a society has evolved.”

It was no surprise that Fox, where Gordon has his deal, bought the pilot spec, hoping to marry the series with a broadcast network given that the long-term economics are better for such arrangements. But Gordon and Gansa always hoped for a cable network home. The pilot drew interest from both broadcast and cable, but newly esconced Showtime prexy David Nevins made the biggest play.

“It really needed to be on a network that would allow certain content that we had in mind,” says Gordon, who is doing double duty as showrunner and exec producer of NBC’s midseason drama “Awake.” “It’s not so much about the nudity and swearing,” which is plentiful, “it’s that you don’t have to write to these artificial act breaks, which tend to be a disruptive thing. It creates an artificial necessity to bring the story to certain pitched places that weren’t really conducive to this particular story. (The show) is slow-boiling psychological drama. We hope the audience is in this sort of hypnotic state, and the idea of having to leave that for a commercial break didn’t really work for this concept.”

Gordon says it has taken a decade for Stateside viewers to be ready to delve into a series like “Homeland,” which broaches the possibility of a rescued American POW having flipped to the enemy’s side.

” ‘Homeland’ could not have happened in the direct wake of 9/11,” says Gordon. “This show asks the question: Where are we now and what should we be afraid of? (Ten years ago), we all knew what we needed to be afraid of. A lot of us aren’t so sure now.”

Source: Variety