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.
Sky has picked up Kiefer Sutherland’s new series Touch for the UK market, to air this Spring.
Sky has announced a deal with Twentieth Century Fox Television Distribution to become the exclusive UK home of Kiefer Sutherland’s highly anticipated new drama Touch, from Heroes’ creator Tim Kring. Touch has already been given a series order of 13 episodes on the US network, Fox, home to Sutherland’s previous series 24. The agreement was brokered by Sarah Wright, Controller of Acquisitions, Entertainment, Sky, and Steve Cornish, SVP and Managing Director, 20th Century Fox Television Distribution.
Stuart Murphy, Director, Sky 1 HD said: ““It’s great to have Kiefer back on Sky 1 HD – it feels like his natural home after the phenomenal success of 24. As the face and force behind this new series, we’re confident it will resonate with our customers. Touch is right up there in terms of creative ambition and really delivers on our promise of new, unmissable and exclusive content.”
Sutherland added: “It’s great for Touch to have found a home on Sky. Sky was always supportive of 24 and built some truly innovative promotions for the show. I’m thrilled that UK audiences will get to see the show so soon after the US launch.”
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.”
During todays Television Critics Association winter tour presentation panel for Touch, Kiefer Sutherland reiterated the current plans for 24‘s feature film. “We will be shooting end of April or beginning of May,” the actor said.
Kiefer also confirmed that just like the television series, the movie would take place over the course of a single day, though obviously not in real-time. As for where the movie will fit in the timeline of the series? Kiefer says it’s “relatively a direct continuation [from the series finale]. We’re talking maybe six months from the end of that episode.”
Although Kiefer Sutherland is tight-lipped when it comes to revealing the cast, Howard Gordon confirmed yesterday that fan favorite Chloe O’Brian would appear in the film along with new characters. The movie is being written by Mark Bomback and currently has no director attached.
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).
Today is Kiefer Sutherland’s 45th birthday – he was born on December 21, 1966 in London, England. Happy Birthday, Kiefer!
2012 is set to be a very big year for the actor. First up is the DVD release of The Confession on January 24th. A day later his new drama series Touch will air a special preview event on FOX ahead of the official series premiere on March 19th.
Shortly after that in April is the moment we’ve all been waiting for. The 24 movie is scheduled to go into production with Kiefer reprising his role as Jack Bauer. Let’s hope it will be worth the long wait!
Here’s a new special feature from Kiefer Sutherland’s upcoming series Touch. In this video he talks about the father and son relationship and how he’s attracted to characters “that aren’t gonna win all the time.”
A special preview event of Touch airs on FOX, January 25th 2012.
Check out this new promo for Kiefer Sutherland’s upcoming series Touch.
FOX’s marketing department certainly seems to be trying to evoke similarities to 24 with this new promo. An imminent event going down on that day, a suicide bomber, fight scene, digital countdown clock…
It was recently announced that a “special preview” of the pilot episode will air January 25th after American Idol before the series premiere in March.
Deadline gives us an update on the 24 movie which is beginning to sound a lot more concrete.
The clock has started on 24, the feature version of the Imagine Entertainment/Fox series. The project, which brings back Kiefer Sutherland’s tireless government operative Jack Bauer. Mark Bomback–a favorite writer at 20th Century Fox writing The Wolverine and Shadow Divers–will turn in the latest script draft by year’s end. Imagine and the studio have about five directors in mind–no, Tony Scott is not attached anymore–and it will all begin happening very quickly in the early part of next year. The goal is to get the film into production to match Sutherland’s availability, which begins in April. That should give producer Brian Grazer something to do after he completes producing the Academy Awards and it is certainly good news for fans of the show who were beginning to fear the project wouldn’t happen.
UPDATE: If you needed any more confirmation, the official 24 Facebook page and former 24 showrunner Howard Gordon (via Twitter) have both acknowledged this report. Screenwriter Mark Bomback had actually worked with Howard Gordon before on the pilot for NBC’s “Legends”.
FOX has sent out a press release detailing their mid-season schedule and we finally have some information on Touch‘s premiere. First they will air a “special preview” of the pilot episode on January 25th right after American Idol to build buzz, then the series will premiere in 24‘s old time slot on Mondays at 9-10PM in March.
TOUCH, the distinctive new drama created by Tim Kring (“Heroes”) and starring Kiefer Sutherland (“24”) will debut with a special preview Wednesday, Jan. 25 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT), immediately following AMERICAN IDOL (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT). The uplifting drama, which makes its series premiere Monday, March 19 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT), features Sutherland as a widower and single father haunted by an inability to connect to his mute 11-year-old son. But everything changes when he discovers that his son possesses the gift of staggering genius – the ability to see things that no one else can and the patterns that connect seemingly unrelated events.
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:
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.
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.
