Sean Callery on “electrifying” finale, hopes for live orchestra

24 UK Podcast had an hour-long audio interview with 24: Live Another Day composer Sean Callery. Here are five of the most interesting answers.

Composer Sean Callery
Composer Sean Callery

Surnow fought for Callery:
“Joel Surnow who was the executive producer and creator of the show, he had to fight to have me on the show because 20th Century FOX really didn’t know much about me. It was anything but a done deal that I would remain on the show. Pilots are very active environments creatively, people are offering thousands of opinions about how the music should go. And Joel was really protecting me and he was protecting his vision for the show. I stayed on the show and FOX was very happy with the way the show turned out obviously.”

24 movie had good scripts:
“There were scripts and really good scripts at that, but the stars weren’t quite aligning.”

24: Live Another Day remains energetic and fast-paced:
“So far as what I’ve seen, the answer is a resounding yes. Howard Gordon and I were talking about it and he said something kind of complimentary about the show. He thinks this present incarnation of the series is almost like a graphic novel in terms of the primary colorness(?) of it. The exposition is very tight and taught, it’s just fun. It’s a fun ride. I think what you’re going to see is going to be very enjoyable. I haven’t seen an episode that at all lacks in energy or entertainment.”

24: Live Another Day finale is teased:
“I have a little inkling of what the finale is going to be, and I think it’s going to be really electrifying. I can’t say anymore about it, but it looks to be really fun.”

Live orchestra for the finale?
“We’re trying to secure the budget for some live recording towards the end of this season. I would absolutely love it. I would’ve loved it for every season, it was something that was just very hard to make happen [due to budget issues]. I did some live recordings with some vocals and some percussions and stuff as warranted. I would love to do that in a more fully realized way before we finish Season 9.”

Source 24 UK Podcast

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Nice of Sean referring LAD as Season 9.

Orchestral sounds (with wind & string instruments especially) often lend themselves in either heightening the dramatic effect of a grand battle scene or of an emotional, heart-felt scene. If the current season will really be the series end, I can certainly see Callery and the producers thinking an orchestral background in the music will help drive home what they seem to want an epic ending/finale to have. Maybe there’s a monumental battle/action scene in the 12th episode (bomb detonation? significant destruction of a symbolic building?) followed by some major loss (primary character death? emotional loss/void/collapse by Jack?)

A live orchestra would be AWESOME!

I like Sean Callery’s music on both 24 and Homeland.

“There were ( movie) scripts and really good scripts at that, but the stars weren’t quite aligning.”

DAMN YOU FOX, DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL (collapses on the floor sobbing)!!!

Sean Callery would do an awesome Bond soundtrack I reckon.

Sean DID do an amazing James Bond soundtrack, for the game ‘Everything or Nothing’. Have a look on youtube, its just as good as the recent films score.

To my mind that’s the best Bond game ever made, one of the reasons was because of the music – which by the way I had no idea Sean Callery composed so thank you and consider my mind blown!

I didn’t know this either! Great game too.

he has done great work , Two memorable moment when george mason flying the nuclear bomb to the dessert in season 2 and lynn sacrificing himself to neutralise the nerve gas at CTU.