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}.
In news that flew under the radar, Howard Gordon’s pilot Legends has been picked up to pilot by NBC. The show was originally pitched to the network last year and they ultimately passed on it. But after retooling the script it’s now being given a second chance.
NBC has acquired drama pilot “Legends” from 20th Century Fox TV, with Howard Gordon (“24,” “Homeland”) and Jeffrey Nachmanoff exec producing.
Nachmanoff will direct his own script, about an undercover agent who takes on legendary identities — while coming to face the possibility that his own identity is fictional as well.
Nachmanoff and Gordon formed a partnership after the former directed two episodes of “Homeland,” the Showtime freshman hit.
The writer shares script credit on 2004′s “The Day After Tomorrow” with Roland Emmerich, and also has co-authored “The Last Stand,” a feature with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Forest Whitaker scheduled for a 2013 release.
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.
While at a press conference for Clint Eastwood’s new biopic J Edgar, journalist Ed Symkus bumped into Brian Grazer (who produced that movie and is producing the 24 movie) on an elevator and asked him a bit about the status of the 24 movie.
“We’re working on it,” he said. “We’re making the movie. We have a script, and the casting is going along great. We’re about to start casting the main antagonist, the person who plays against Jack Bauer. We have a really great role to play against Kiefer.”
I asked him when he thinks we’re going to see the film.
“I hope to have it out in the first quarter of 2012,” he said.
Here’s a surprise – 24‘s Anil Kapoor (who starred as Omar Hassan in the final season) has purchased the rights to the television series and will be making an Indian adaptation. Kapoor will play the role of Jack Bauer and plans to cast “top actors” in the leading roles.
Anil Kapoor has bought the rights of one of the most popular American tv series, 24. The show, which ran for eight seasons, also had Kapoor in a cameo in the finale season. His production company has now bought the remake rights and he will adapt it for the Indian telly.
Says a source close to the actor, “It took him a year of negotiations with the American producers and creators of 24 to crack the deal. The international team of 24 will be involved with the making. The show will air in Hindi and will also be dubbed in various regional languages. Kapoor is in talks with India’s top channels and the show will air sometime next year.
In this counter-terrorism drama, Anil will playing the iconic character of Jack Bauer, which is played by Kiefer Sutherland in the original. The show will be shot on a big canvas and will have top actors in leading roles. Anil confirms, “I am really happy that the makers of the show have put their faith in me for its Indian version. When I was shooting for it in the US, I kept wishing that I could take something like this to my Indian audience. Now that wish is close to getting fulfilled.”
When quizzed about stepping into Jack Bauer’s shoes, he says, “It’s a huge honour, but I am anxious as Jack is an iconic character like Jack Sparrow or Batman. He is loved all over the world. It’s a great responsibility for me as an entrepreneur and as actor. I will try my best and hope I can do even 50 per cent of what they have done. If I achieve a little of what Keifer has, I will be happy.”
Interestingly, Jack’s most repeated line on the show is ‘Son of a b***h!’ Wonder how Anil will translate that in Hindi!
The Southfork ranch is going to have a bit of a CTU vibe to it when TNT’s Dallas reboot debuts next summer. Vulture has learned that 24 icon Carlos Bernard, who played Jack’s faithful sidekick (until he wasn’t, then was, then wasn’t … ) Tony Almeida, has landed a recurring role on the drama, which will start early in the season. Bernard will play a suave Venezuelan businessman trying to hammer out a deal with J.R. (and hopefully, said deal will include crafty terrorists and several fake deaths). Bernard is currently playing the father of a serial killer in a season-long CSI: Miami arc.
Today marks 24‘s tenth anniversary – the show premiered on November 6, 2001 to critical acclaim. Although the ratings weren’t great at first, FOX believed in the show and stuck with it. They aired the seventh episode of the series several days early at 3:00 AM just so it would meet the deadline to be eligible for a Golden Globe nomination. And indeed, Kiefer Sutherland won “Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Drama Series” which gave the ratings a nice uptick.
24 10th Anniversary Wallpaper by Galin
FOX also aired the season 2 and 3 premieres commercial free and paired it up with American Idol (the most popular show on TV). With season 4 they bundled the first 24 minutes of the premiere episode on a DVD included in copies of Entertainment Weekly. In order to keep the momentum, they decided to air the season non-stop with no reruns. They shelled out millions of dollars for three advertisements during the Super Bowl. By the fifth season of 24, ratings were at an all-time high. How many other shows can say that?
The fantastic cast members deserve credit too. Think of all the great actors on this show over the years – Dennis Haysbert, Penny Johnson Jerald, Xander Berkeley, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Jean Smart, Gregory Itzin, Annie Wersching, Cherry Jones, Jon Voight, and more. And of course we can’t forget the incredible crew who worked tirelessly to create something special. Robert Cochran and Joel Surnow for coming up with this unique idea, Jon Cassar’s fabulous directing which made viewers feel as if they were watching a big-budget movie each week, and Sean Callery’s incredible music which received Emmy nominations for every season of the show.
24 was a great show and will hopefully become a great movie franchise starting next year. Also be sure to check out this great lengthy post from Rita at Addictedto24: 24′s Enduring Legacy and a nice video by Lisa Thomas: 24 Jack Bauer 10th Anniversary Video.
TV Line reports that Sarah Clarke has been cast in CW’s Nikita.
Nikita has recruited Sarah Clarke, the 24 alum fans loved to hate, for a top-secret role, TVLine has learned exclusively.
Clarke — who made a name for herself as CTU mole Nina Myers on 24 — will appear during the second half of Season 2 of The CW’s action-drama (airing Fridays at 8/7c). Yet all other details surrounding her role (character, episode count, first airdate) thus far are being kept under wraps.
Neither do we know if Clarke will get to share scenes with her real-life husband, Xander Berekely, whom she met on 24 and who now plays Nikita‘s Percy.
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.
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.”
Rade Sherberdgia (24 Season 6′s Dimitri Gredenko) has been cast as the big bad of Taken 2.
Serbian actor Rade Sherbedgia has been cast as the villain in 20th Century Fox and EuropaCorp’s Taken 2, which stars Liam Neeson and is set to begin filming in Turkey and France later this month.
Sherbedgia will play Murad, the father of a kidnapper slain by Bryan Mills (Neeson) in the first film. Murad is described as a vengeful man who gives orders and doesn’t take them. When Murad takes Mills and his wife hostage, their daughter is enlisted to help save them.
Congrats to 24‘s Mykelti Williamson who has just landed a huge part in FX’s Justified, playing a villain.
Fans of FX’s Justified have been wondering since May’s second season finale how producers would match Margo Martindale’s Emmy-winning performance as Mags Bennett. Well, now we know: Desperate Housewives‘ Neal McDonough and 24‘s Mykelti Williamson, who both starred on Justified EP Graham Yost’s brilliant-but-canceled NBC drama Boomtown, have been cast as the awesomely named big bads of season 3.
McDonough will recur as Quarles, a Detroit mobster in a sharp suit who comes to Kentucky with visions of becoming a crimelord. Williamson will play Limehouse, a man who lives in a small black town in Harlan County and who will do whatever it takes, legal or otherwise, to protect his holler.
Here is the first trailer for Touch starring Kiefer Sutherland. The series was written by Tim Kring (Heroes) and also co-stars Danny Glover. No official date has been announced yet, but the show is expected to debut in March and air on Mondays at 9PM – 24‘s old time slot.
