Jack’s Back! “24” Returning to Fox in Summer 2014
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Isabella Vosmikova/FOX(NEW YORK) — Jack Bauer will live to see another day…but his day will be slightly shorter.
Fox has announced that 24, starring Keifer Sutherland as agent Jack Bauer, will be returning to the network in 2014, mostly likely in May. But whereas the show previously played out over 24 episodes, with each episode documenting a single hour in a single day in Bauer’s life, the new model 24 has been recast as a 12-episode “event series.”
Speaking with reporters on Monday, Fox Entertainment Chairman Kevin Reilly said the new series, called 24: Live Another Day, was precipitated by the producers of the show abandoning plans to make a feature film. “I think they all agreed, ‘You know what? 24 being compressed into two hours is not 24,'” Reilly told reporters.
But what about compressing 24 into 12 hours, rather than 24? Reilly says that out of those original 24 hours, there were really only 12 that mattered anyway. “The spine of the 24 episodes was really about, about 12 hours,” he told reporters. “Those were where the big events occurred and then there were little twists and connective tissue in between.”
Of course, packing all the action into 12 hours will mean that the show will have to leave out certain moments in Jack’s day.
“What we’ll be able to do is go in chronological order of the day, but they will skip hours,” Reilly explained. “You may go. …7 a.m., 8 a.m., 10 a.m. 10, 11, 12, 3. So it’ll be dictated by the plot.” He added that they’ve got “just about a who’s who of Hollywood coming in the door right now wanting to participate in this,” but would not reveal any of the big names he’s presumably got lined up.
In a statement, Keifer Sutherland said, “To have the chance to reunite with the character, Jack Bauer, is like finding a lost friend. The story ideas…are exciting and fresh, and will not disappoint…Make no mistake, my goal is to knock your socks off. See you soon.”
Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio