Congratulations to former 24 writers Howard Gordon, Alex Gansa, Chip Johannessen (and other 24 crew members including Sean Callery, Brad Turner, and Michael Klick) for their huge win at tonights Golden Globes. Their new Showtime series Homeland scored a major and much deserved win for best television drama series (Claire Danes also won for best actress in a drama).
Watch the acceptance speech below:
The former 24 crew sent out their congratulations via Twitter with director Jon Cassar tweeting “Congrats to former 24 producer Howard Gordon on the Globe for best drama Homeland. It’s one if the best shows on TV right now. Must see.”
James P Morrison (Bill Buchanan) tweeted “Congratulations to my friend Howard Gordon and all involved in bringing us Homeland.” and first assistant director Nicole Burke called it the “best show on TV.”
At todays TCA panel for Awake, executive producer Howard Gordon has confirmed to TV Guide’s William Keck that fan favorite Chloe O’Brian will take part in the upcoming 24 movie. He also mentions a summer shoot date.
#24 producer Howard Gordon tells me he’s hoping to shoot film with #kiefersutherland this summer – and Chloe would figure in with new cast
Chloe was last seen being taken into custody by two FBI Agents for her part in helping Jack escape the country (watch the full Chloe’s Arrest epilogue here).
After nine years of writing for 24, Howard Gordon released his debut novel last year: an action-packed thriller titled Gideon’s War (read our review). He’s back this time with a follow-up book that continues the adventures of brothers Gideon and Tillman.
Hard Target kicks off with a similar premise to 24‘s final season. A shady informant alerts Gideon Davis that there will be a large-scale attack on US soil in the next few days, but is murdered before he can hand over solid proof. The FBI refuses to commit any resources into an investigation without any tangible evidence, so Gideon takes matters into his own hands.
Gideon recruits his brother Tillman to go undercover with the suspect, Jim Verhoven, leader of a white supremacist militia. They secretly receive assistance from Gideon’s ex-girlfriend in the FBI, agent Nancy Clement. She’s the Chloe O’Brian type character in this story and provides the brothers with equipment such as encrypted radios and GPS devices. This adds some additional tension later on when the FBI attempt to reacquire their stolen equipment and risk blowing the entire undercover operation.
The book takes place in several different locations before ultimately converging in one place for the grand finale – the State of the Union Address in Washington DC. The villains plan on wiping out the entire US government in one fell swoop, and Gideon’s fiancee Kate Murphy is also in attendance which adds a personal factor to the threat. Although this requires a massive suspension of disbelief, it’s handled in perhaps the most realistic way possible.
Gordon does a great job of utilizing all of the characters and giving each of them a key moment that is crucial to the plot. Hard Target is a briskly paced thriller that will keep readers in suspense right up until the final pages. It’s available now on Amazon and iBooks among other retailers. [click to continue…]
Howard Gordon, the Executive Producer of “Homeland” and “24″ has been sued by the family of a man who was killed after Gordon’s wife struck him with the family car.
Here’s what we know … Law enforcement sources tell TMZ … Gordon’s wife, Cambria, was driving in Santa Monica on July 20th when her cell phone fell off the seat onto the floor of the car. Cambria reached down to retrieve the phone when her car struck 83-year-old pedestrian William Howard Smerling.
Smerling was taken to the hospital, where he hung on but died a month later.
According to the lawsuit, Smerling had the right of way and Cambria was negligent by taking her eyes off the road. Howard is being sued because he’s the registered owner of the car along with his wife. Under California law, the registered owners are responsible for the misdeeds of those who drive with their permission.
And law enforcement sources tell us … Cambria will be charged with misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter. The maximum penalty is 1 year in jail, but typically first offenders end up on probation.
In her favor … our law enforcement sources tell us Cambria stopped immediately at the scene and acknowledged responsibility, and she’s been fully cooperative and very remorseful.
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.
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.
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.
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. [click to continue…]
It’s been more than a year since Fox’s 24 ended its run, but buzz surrounding a big-screen feature picking up where the Kiefer Sutherland thriller left off still lives large.
Showrunner Howard Gordon, on hand Thursday at the Television Critics Association’s summer press tour to promote Showtime’s Homeland, noted that conversations are “definitely happening” to take the franchise to the big screen.
“There’s an institutional desire to do it,” he told The Hollywood Reporter. “I know Kiefer wants to do it, we all want to do it. It’s just about finding the right script and not just doing it to do it.”
Gordon, reflecting on the dramatic thriller’s conclusion, noted that completing the series was an uphill battle and, while proud of the work he’s done, is nervous about what a feature would entail. [click to continue…]
The Hollywood Reporter says that 24‘s Chip Johannessen, showrunner of Showtime’s hugely successful Dexter last season, will join Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa’s CIA thriller Homeland (which was just picked up to series earlier this month).
Gordon, Gansa and Johannessen worked together on the final two seasons of 24; Johannessen joined the series in 2009 as a producer and was promoted to co-executive producer in 2010.
Other former 24 cast members working on Homelandinclude composer Sean Callery and producer Michael Klick. It seems like the series will be in good hands.
Showtime has officially picked up Homeland to series, a new drama show by Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa. Other 24 crew members working on it include Sean Callery who is composing the music and Michael Klick who serves as producer. Nestor Serrano (Navi Araz, Season 4) and Navid Negahban (Jamot, Season 8) have roles in the pilot.
HOMELAND is a psychological thriller that tells the story of Carrie Anderson (Claire Danes), a CIA officer battling her own demons, who becomes convinced that the intelligence that led to the rescue of Scott Brody (Damian Lewis) a U.S. soldier who had been missing and presumed deal for nine years, was a setup and may be connected to an Al Qaeda plot to be carried out on American soil. Mandy Patinkin will portray Saul, a veteran CIA Division Chief who is Carrie’s (Danes) boss and mentor. HOMELAND is written by Howard Gordon, Alex Gansa and Gideon Raff, and is based on Raff’s Israeli television series “Prisoners of War.” The series will be produced by FOX 21.
Deadline reports that screenwriter Chap Taylor is currently adapting former 24 showrunner Howard Gordon’s debut novel Gideon’s War for film. Apparently the project is for Paramount and Michael Bay.
Now the question is, what will hit theaters first: the 24 movie or the Gideon’s War movie?
Gregory Mantell interviewed 24‘s Howard Gordon about the show, the 24 movie, his novel Gideon’s War, working with Jon Voight, Kiefer Sutherland, his upcoming series Homeland, and more.
EXCLUSIVE: Cherry Jones, who won an Emmy for her role on Fox’s 24, is reuniting with the show’s showrunner Howard Gordon and studio 20th Century Fox TV. Jones is set to co-star opposite Jason Isaacs in NBC’s drama pilot REM, from creator/exec producer Kyle Killen and 20th TV. The project, described as an Inception-style thriller, centers on Detective Mark Britten (Isaacs), who wakes up after an accident to find he is living in two different realities, one in which he has killed his son Rex and one in which he has killed his wife Hannah in a car accident. Jones will play Dr. Stephanie Evans, Mark’s shrink in the reality in which his wife has been killed. Gordon, who cast Jones in her Emmy-winning role as President Alison Taylor on 24, serves as executive producer/showrunner on REM. David Slade is directing/exec producing.
24‘s Marci Michelle is also working on the pilot which is getting a lot of praise from those who read the script.
This guy sure likes to keep busy. Despite being the showrunner of not one but two potential series (Showtime’s Homeland and NBC’s REM), Howard Gordon is somehow still finding time to write a sequel to his debut novel Gideon’s War.
Simon and Schuster announcedHard Target (formerly known as Allegiance) scheduled for release in January 2012. The book is a follow-up to Gideon’s War and continues the story of Gideon Davis. No other details at this time but it’s supposed to focus on a larger set of characters than the first book.
