TV News

‘24′ to Bridge Gap with 2 Hour Made-for-TV Movie

Posted by Michelle Graham (michelle@filmschoolrejects.com) on March 7, 2008

Though the Writers Guild of America’s strike is slowly fading in the minds of TV and movie goers around the world, the rippling effects are still being felt throughout the industry. Various TV shows are having to deal with greatly shortened seasons in order to be off the air by the usual June deadline, and many good movies were dropped from the slate entirely (of course, some made it back on, not always the most deserving though, *cough* Justice League *cough*).

One of the hardest hit shows was 24, whose seventh season was pulled from the air completely in order to prevent the airing of a truncated or split season. Due to the specific format of the show, a complete story arc set within 24 hours, either of those options would have dramatically affected the quality and ratings of the season. 24 is already on dangerous ground with its fans, due to a run of shoddy seasons over the last few years, and so, the producers have promised a radical shake up, a complete overhaul and a fresh start. So, this is one time they don’t want to have to worry about fans getting cut off midway through. Rather than risk this, Fox announced that they would air season 7 in January of 2009, as if it were any other season. Work has begun on the scripts of the final episodes of the season, with filming set to start in April, but work continues minus Joel Surnow, a co-creator and executive producer of 24, who left the staff at the end of the strike.

However, it seems that season 7 is not the only piece of Jack we’ll get in this TV cycle, as according to the Hollywood Reporter, news is circulating that work has begun on a 2 hour TV movie, bridging the 2-year gap between season 6 and the forthcoming season 7.

With season 7 such a radical departure from the norm (for example: the setting has been moved from LA to Washington and CTU (the Counter Terrorist Unit) will not be involved), it’s understandable that there’s enough material to warrant a movie, but it’s never been needed before, so why start now? (Other than Hollywood’s usual reason of course, the Quan.)

Of course, this quandary won’t stop all the 24 fans out there starving for a fix of their favorite indestructible agent, Jack Bauer.