After tonight, Jack Bauer is finally going to get a day off — for a little while anyway. Though 24 is going off the air, there are plans to make a movie based on the TV show. It’s supposedly going to involve Jack battling some form of evil in Europe. But, where does it stand?
Executive producer Howard Gordon recently told Movieweb, “The current status of the movie is that Billy Ray has written a draft which Kiefer Sutherland has read, and we’re all working together on the second draft.”
He cautioned, “Now, it’s not been shared with Fox or anybody so there is no official status right now. It’s very much a work in progress. Honestly, the movie division is on the other side of the lot and I don’t know and can’t measure their intentions or their timing, and certainly can’t measure their reaction to the script because they haven’t read it yet. ”
Gordon concluded, “So I think it’s all very much speculative at this point. I think our preference would be to do it sooner than later, of course, and get Jack back out in front of people within a year or two, but I don’t know. That would be just me speaking.”
The executive producer believes that there’s a tricky balance in crafting the movie script. He shared, “There are two sets of requirements, which is honoring the series and the creative integrity of the character, and also potentially bringing in a whole new group of people into the franchise who can then go back and watch, and believe it’s been consistent. So I think we recognize that we’re serving two masters or two audiences here, not that they are mutually exclusive but there are two requirements.”
One thing’s for sure, the conceit of events happening in real time will likely have to be abandoned. Gordon has shared in the past that the format, though interesting, often limited what kinds of stories they could tell. He believes that the movie can still work without it though. He said, “I think Jack Bauer the character has got sufficiently broad and strong shoulders to carry a movie in this genre.”
