Get the clock started

We got some news on 24: Live Another Day yesterday including a new cast addition and the premiere date. Here's the information from tvline.com:

The time has come for a major 24 casting update: Yvonne Strahovski has boarded Fox’s forthcoming 12-episode event series, 24: Live Another Day, in a major role, TVLine has learned.

The Chuck and Dexter MVP will play Kate Morgan, a brilliant but impulsive CIA field operative in London. She joins franchise vets Kiefer Sutherland, Kim Raver, William Devane and Mary Lynn Rajskub, as well as Emmy winner Judy Davis, The Wire‘s Gbenga Akinnagbe and True Blood‘s Giles Matthey.

24: LAD, which will be shot in London and pick up four years after the series finale, will essentially be 24 ”compressed over 12 weeks,” Fox president Kevin Reilly previously explained. “It will go chronologically over the day, but it will skip hours.” It’s set to debut on Monday, May 5.

24 prepares for a bloody good time

From comingsoon.net

Twentieth Century Fox Television, Imagine Television and Fox are sending the production of "24: Live Another Day" across the Atlantic to London for a thrilling international adventure, as the new tent-pole event series restarts the clock on the groundbreaking and Emmy Award-winning drama franchise starring Kiefer Sutherland. As previously announced, "24: Live Another Day" will make its debut in the summer of 2014 on Fox.

"'24' has always had such a global sensibility," said Sutherland, who also serves as an executive producer on the event series. "But to be able to tell this intense '24'-style story with the beauty of Europe's history and architecture as the backdrop is going to be fascinating. Hopefully, by the time you're finished watching an episode, you'll feel like you've been there...on the edge of your seat."

Co-showrunner and executive producer Evan Katz added, "We wanted the show's return to be an event, and part of that was putting Jack in a very different context. Four years ago, we left Jack a fugitive from justice and we're going to pick him up four years later in London."

Co-showrunner and executive producer Manny Coto continued, "Jack is soon back on the run and it takes us into the streets of London and in places that break new ground for the show. We've shot in New York, Washington, Los Angeles and Cape Town -- but now we're in London and Jack's loose on the streets of Europe, hunted by and hunting bad guys."

Originally premiering November 6, 2001, "24" was nominated for a total of 73 Emmy Awards, winning for Outstanding Drama Series in 2006. Over the course of eight seasons, and a two-hour telefilm, Sutherland garnered seven Emmy Award nominations and one win for Outstanding Lead Actor - Drama Series.

"24: Live Another Day" is a production of 20th Century Fox Television and Imagine Television in association with Teakwood Lane Productions. Howard Gordon, Brian Grazer and Kiefer Sutherland will executive produce, along with an additional team to be announced. The original series, which had its last American broadcast on May 24, 2010, was created by Joel Surnow and Robert Cochran.

Restarting the clock?

From EW.com

No one wanted to say goodbye to Jack Bauer, so why not have him return?

Fox is in talks to bring back Kiefer Sutherland the long-running action drama 24 for a limited run. Since the network is revving up a division that will eventually churn out event miniseries like a remake of Shogun, a revisit to the successful 24 franchise could be just the ticket.

Insiders caution, however, that talks are early. If the dream becomes a reality, the series’ longtime executive producer Howard Gordon — who reportedly pitched the return in the first place and has since moved on to Showtime’s grown-up domestic terrorism hit Homeland — would return with the show.

Though the series ended in 2010, Fox’s sister studio 20th Century Fox didn’t want to see the franchise go away. There were talks to make the series into a movie but it never took off. Sutherland has recently starred in Fox’s Touch, which is not expected to return for a third season.

Jack and thrill

Jack Reacher is a popular character in a series of books by author Lee Child. Upon hearing that the series was receiving a film adaptation, I decided to start reading the books. I've finished the first two and while I can't say it's my favorite series of books, they are good reads, particularly for the summertime. Reacher is a former military policeman who now just travels around the country and always seems to find himself in the thick of someone else's problems. The character has a lot in common with 24's Jack Bauer with his sense of patriotism and violent tendencies. For the film adaptation, Tom Cruise has actually been cast as Jack Reacher. This has angered a lot of fans of the franchise as they feel Cruise does not resemble Reacher in any way. While I would agree with their assessment, I won't care too much so long as the film is good. We'll have to wait until December though to make that determination. In the meantime, you can get your first glimpse as to what we can expect with the recently released trailer, which I'll post below.

Time stands still

From comingsoon.net:

In some unfortunate news for 24 fans, Deadline is reporting that the big-screen version of the real time television series won't be moving forward this year as originally planned.

Word of a 24 film began last year when star Kiefer Sutherland confirmed plans to bring Agent Jack Bauer back for a feature.

Recently, there was even news of a proposed start date in late April or early May. Plans now put the project on indefinite hold with shooting scheduled for 2013 at the earliest.

Written by Mark Bomback and Billy Ray, the 24 film is allegedly planned to continue directly from the series' finale, jumping forward in time by about six months. Like the show, the film will be set over a 24 hour period but (of course) will not actually play out in real time.