When Twentieth Century Fox put the brakes on the 24 feature film back in March, it was starting to look like Kiefer Sutherland’s counter-terrorist machine Jack Bauer may have choked out his last bad guy and given his last word. The official line was ‘budgetary concerns’ and ‘scheduling issues’, with sources indicating that Fox wanted to set a maximum budget of $30 million, while Sutherland is said to have been unhappy with the studio’s $1 million offer for him to reprise his Emmy Award-winning role on the big screen.
Anyway, Sutherland has now given fans of the series hope that the various parties have sorted out their differences, telling Crave Online that he expects filming to commence on 24: The Movie once he’s completed work on the second season of Fox’s supernatural series Touch: “We didn’t have a script ready [earlier this year] until very close to the end of Touch. We knew we were coming back so there was a very finite window for me to make the film, to try to prep it, cast it and all of those other things. It was just unrealistic for Fox to try and make it, so they pushed it for next break.”
It’s not the first time we’ve found ourselves in this situation with regards to the 24 movie, but it certainly seems like a no-brainer for Fox, especially if they can knock it out for a fraction of the cost of the likes of The Bourne Legacy and Skyfall… Speaking of which, Bauer vs. Bond vs. Bourne – who wins in a fight?
Originally published July 25, 2012. Updated November 6, 2019.
