We all have a threshold for dumbness. I discovered that 24 blew right past my threshold at some point during the second season, and I’ve never bothered looking back. I understand that in the seven seasons since I bowed out Jack Bauer has continued making excellent time on freeways, never needed to evacuate his bladder and been faced with trite complication after trite complication.
But that could all be ending, with Fox looking like it won’t pick up the show for another season. And with that possibility looming production entity 20th Century Fox TV is taking serious moves into making a 24 movie. Serious and potentially good moves: they’ve hired Billy Ray, a guy who can be found doing less than great work (Flightplan, Suspect Zero) as well as doing great work (Shattered Glass, State of Play remake). Billy Ray is a writer who can go either way depending on the situation, and maybe he could be bringing his smart guy game to this potential film.
Billy Ray’s pitch has Jack Bauer heading to Europe; while the movie would be called 24 (obviously) it’s unclear whether the real time aspect would carry over. I mean, it’s unlikely that anyone outside of Warhol’s Factory would release a 24 hour long movie, and you can’t assume there will be 11 more sequels. Would the film condense 24 hours into two, or would it be real time for two hours? Bring in Matt Pinfield and call it 120 Minutes, maybe.
All of this remains up in the air. Should the Fox network cancel 24, 20th Century Fox TV might try shopping it around; producers have said they don’t think they could shoot a movie while the show was still in production. But whatever happens, this more or less guarantees that Day Nine won’t be Jack Bauer’s last timecard drawing overtime.