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.

TV reviews (Midseason edition)

I figured I'd take a few moments and share some of my feelings on a pair of shows which have recently debuted.

Alcatraz: In the ongoing quest to fill the void left by Lost comes this new drama that is part police procedural and part sci-fi mystery. Back in 1963 over 300 of the prisoners encarcerated at Alcatraz, along with the guards on duty mysteriously vanished. Now in present day they have begun showing up seemingly the same age they were back in '63. A team has been assembled to recapture these guys consisting of a young cop (played by Sarah Jones), a comic book artist who's an expert on Alcatraz (Jorge Garcia aka Hurley from Lost) and a mysterious federal agent (Sam Neill) who was a guard not on duty at Alcatraz when everyone disappeared. Thus far, the show has managed establish a rhythm (each episode has featured one returning inmate/guard that the team is trying to locate) but has avoided becoming pure formula by throwing in some twists and mysteries to keep audiences guessing at the show's big questions. I really like the cast here. Neill as excellent playing the shades of grey agent, Jones is sexy but tough, and Garcia remains likeable while doing a good job of making this character different from Hurley. I've definitely become invested in discovering the show's central mysteries and unlike Person of Interest which I stopped watching after about 6 weeks, I don't see myself getting bored with the formulaic aspects of the show. Thus far, ratings have been solid. And with the announcement that FOX will not be renewing House after this season, it looks likely that this show will be sticking around. If you haven't given this show a look yet, trying finding its aired episodes online somewhere and get caught up. Thumbs up!

Touch: This had an early preview a few weeks ago. This is the latest show from creator Tim Kring(Heroes). It focuses on single father (Keifer Sutherland) struggling to raise his son who has never spoken one word since he was born. However, we see that the boy is very special and has a gift for finding connections between people through numbers. The story is similar to the film Knowing but with a much more positive and uplifting theme. I enjoyed the pilot episode but I do have some reservations as to whether or not the show can sustain itself as a series. I'm really glad to see Keifer Sutherland back on TV, although I do wish it was still as Jack Bauer. His character here does not possess Jack's skills of being a badass, but if they do share a similarity it's that both characters seemingly try to carry the weight of the world on their shoulders and you easily empathize with both. There's a lot to like here, but the jury is still out as to whether this will work as episodic televison.