While finishing up a pub meal, Sutherland is approached by a British man who whispers a few words of gratitude and then dashes away. The actor really likes it in the U.K., and not just because he was born in nearby Paddington to mother Shirley, an actress, and father Donald, with whom he just filmed a Western that’ll be released later this year.
“England is a place where the show did unbelievably well,” says Sutherland. “It took a little longer for an American audience to find it.”
It won’t be nearly as hard to pique viewer interest this time around, as evidenced by the ecstatic Twittersphere reaction to the 45-second promo that aired during Super Bowl XLVIII. (Live Another Day has already been sold overseas in countries such as Turkey, Poland, and Greece.) “The spot certainly riled up fans,” says Sutherland, who adds with a laugh that none of the footage shot for the Super Bowl ad will actually appear on the series.
“The only other time I’ve done a promo before we shot a single frame of the end product was Young Guns.” For now, Sutherland and the producers won’t say whether Live Another Day is a one-time deal. “We’re just focusing on this stand-alone season,” says Coto. “We want to make this one great new chapter in Jack Bauer’s life, and if it’s successful, who knows? I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s another season, but there’s no telling what it will be, what shape it will take, and when it will happen.”
But overall, it’s been a pretty bump-free journey to bring back Jack. “When we started shooting, things started working out,” says Sutherland.
“The weather even cooperated. Like, if we needed rain, we got rain. If we needed it to clear up, it would clear up. I don’t believe in providence or any of that. But it felt like when so many things could have gone wrong, they didn’t.”
Even if this does end up being Jack Bauer’s final chapter, Sutherland knows he’ll live with the character for the rest of his life. Case in point: Before he came to London, a driver witnessed the actor taking an embarrassing header off his bicycle near his Los Angeles home. Without missing a beat, the motorist yelled, “Jack Bauer can’t ride a bike!”
15 Comments
Comments ClosedTrevor
April 3, 2014 at 10:50 pmChlojack
April 3, 2014 at 10:55 pm24junkie
April 3, 2014 at 11:00 pmJoshua
April 3, 2014 at 11:49 pmJoshua
April 4, 2014 at 12:23 amXAM
April 4, 2014 at 3:44 amIt’s like they’re infected with the James Bond curse, “when we try to make a From Russia With Love, we always end up with a Goldfinger”.
Gerry Mander
April 4, 2014 at 2:00 amI still believe that FOX Filmed Entertainment fumbled the ball in a major way with their disgraceful treatment of the ’24’ movie – Kiefer has every right to still feel aggrieved over what happened – but their loss is FOX Television’s gain, and it has to be said that it simply couldn’t have worked out any better than it did… unlike Le Kief, I absolutely DO believe in Providence and when you look at how things worked out, maybe HoGo was right, maybe God really is a ’24’ fan!!!
As to the future of ’24’ post-‘Live Another Day’, it all comes down to how the new series ends, if ratings are strong throughout, and if the writers still feel thay have another story to tell, I would surely be disappointed if it was the final chapter, but would be genuinely pleased and satisfied we got a good and proper ending…
X
April 12, 2014 at 2:35 pmI hope they end 24 for good real soon. I like my stories to have endings, not perpetual money grabs.
I’m so glad they didn’t do the movie. I think they still will after this. But it’s a gigantic step-down from a series (whether that’s 24 episodes or 12). The only way a film would work is the same way Redemption worked: as an extension of an existing or upcoming season. Redemption was basically 2 bonus prequel hours to Day 7.
12 hours is the shortest they should go.
Shannon Ryan
April 4, 2014 at 4:25 amFrom an emotional standpoint for Jack, coming home would make sense as it’s the thing he wants the most but can’t have. The story would also work as if Jack goes out of his way to save Heller, a pardon could be granted and the show could mention that the Russian president and co-conspirators were arrested thanks to Allison Taylor’s testimony.
This could also be the perfect way to bring back other favorite characters, which is of course what all the fans want. Los Angeles is the only plausible setting for Tony, Aaron, Mandy, Mike Novick and Kim to return. I can think of a few great plotlines for these characters, including Kim as a CIA analyst feeding information to Jack, who is properly reunited with her like he always wanted, and has his job back. Because of this new dynamic, there is simply no room for Chloe left in the story anymore and it sounds like she’s been through a great ordeal. A perfect, tragic ending for Live Another Day would be for Chloe to finally get killed off.
XAM
April 4, 2014 at 4:33 amOut of 9 seasons, he’s been gainfully employed for 3 of them, surely that must have raised some red flags in the writers room.
Ozgur
April 4, 2014 at 3:32 pmAs for second point, the writers proudly and incessantly bragged about tragic Bauer during S8. “Renee had to die because Jack cannot get away with happiness”, “We never pressed reset with Jack [with regards to tragedy]”, “Jack won’t come away from this”, “This show is a tragedy, so no happy ending for Jack”, “We want Jack to be in perpetual tragedy”, so on and so forth to defend that tragic Jack crap.
If the immediate season just reverts everything back to normal before S8, they will be eating crow big time. We will see how much spine they really have.
Joshua
April 4, 2014 at 4:25 amAndrew
April 4, 2014 at 1:11 pmChlojack
April 4, 2014 at 5:38 pmhttp://www.extratv.com/2014/04/04/24-live-another-day-first-look-all-the-details-on-jack-bauers-epic-return-to-tv/
AgentRez
April 4, 2014 at 7:56 pm