Kiefer Sutherland – 24: LAD starts out “big”, but desire is to become “very personal”

Kiefer Sutherland on 24 Live Another Day Panel
Kiefer Sutherland discusses 24: Live Another Day at FOX's TCA Panel

I asked Sutherland if he remembers the beginning of the show, how much smaller the stakes were then, and if it was possible to get back to something like that. During that first day, Jack was fighting bureaucracy and hiding an affair; eight seasons later, he’s tractor-flipping his enemies and breaking the necks of others between his legs. Not everyone was a fan of those final seasons where the action had been ratcheted up so high that most of it was implausible. Sutherland laughed, because he’s been working out for the past five months to avoid coming back as “Old Jack Bauer.” “As one gets older, you start to panic about these things,” he said. But to the point, he said, he does remember those early seasons quite fondly.

“Remember that episode in the first season when Jack was held up in that little construction shack because he can’t get outside? The whole episode, he’s in there. It was awesome,” he recalled. “Later on, Howard and I used to sit and drink and go, ‘I remember when it was small, man. When we were doing the drama, the stuff that made people feel.’ We’d lament over that, and by the end of it, we’d be like, ‘So, we’re gonna blow up that family, right?’ ‘Yeah. Probably. I can’t think of anything else to do.’ It made me laugh.”

“But just because we’re starting out big this time, it doesn’t mean that it can’t descend into something really intimate and heavy,” Sutherland continued. “The desire, especially this time, is to get back to that very personal first season.”

Kiefer also talks about the movie being “locked where it is” for now – since 24 is a FOX license, he obviously cannot pitch it to other competing movie studios. It sounds like he’s simply waiting for an executive shakeup at 20th Century FOX. Check out the full interview over at Vulture.

Source Vulture

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I agree Just because there bring it back big. Doesn’t mean it still can’t be personal. I think the fact that he’s on his own a Fugitive is very personal. the fact that he was held & tortured for 18 months in a Chinese prison was very personal. So I guess I disagree. 24 had a lot of moments where Jack was either abandoned or on his own. which kept 24 personal.

If by the “tractor-flipping” reference, they’re referring to that scene in Season 7 where Jack uses the bulldozer to flip over the cabin with the Starkwood assassin in it, that scene was AWESOME (in fact, that whole episode was classic ’24’ at it’s best)… I laugh like a drain every time I watch it; pure Bauer badassery personified!

The interview with Kiefer was interesting and even a little touching in that it’s clear just how hurt and betrayed he still feels about the movie not happening… and I fully understand why! FOX gave every impression they wanted to do it, all the talent involved (Billy Ray, Mark Bomback, Kiefer, HoGo, Brian Grazer, etc) worked hard for two solid years on getting the script right, Kiefer was leading from the front all the way through and putting his word on the line in just about every interview that the movie was definitely gonna happen… and just as the elusive script was as good as finished and production-ready, FOX effectively pull the plug by insisting on a totally unreasonable $30m budget! And you wonder why Kiefer still feels miffed…?

All that being said, I’m pretty philosophical about the whole tortured (no pun intended) ’24’ movie saga; everything happens (or doesn’t) for a reason, everything works out in the end as it should, and I am fully convinced that ‘Live Another Day’ was and is the right way to continue the ’24’ saga… what happens after that, well that’s for another day…

Personally, I would rather have a miniseries like this anyway – it’s twelve hours of 24 compared to just two.

I’ve always been somewhat skeptical of the 24 movie idea. I just don’t think it’s possible to condense 24’s storyline down to 2 hours and have it stand out from the slew of action movies out there. Especially not when it was given a tiny $30 million budget.

The most exciting part of the planned movie (for me anyway) was seeing Jack Bauer in London, and we’re getting that with 24: Live Another Day.

24 coming back is great weather T.V or movie form & Like Kiefer said this was the opportunity that was presented to them first. If there’s a series of sequels after this which strongly sounds possible. Then that’s fine with me should 24 continue to be made a movie doesn’t really need to be made. It would be different if they didn’t want to continue it on T.V anymore. The fact that it’s coming at all is good enough for me.

On the “big” vs. “personal? debate, I guess I never got the aura some felt about the 1st season – to me, there was way too much “personal” stuff with the Teri amnesia/whining; Kim kidnapping/adolescent crush with her captor; and the Keith Palmer scandal. Those plots seemed to get more time, or at least the same, as those involving Jack, Gaines and Drazen. Maybe the threat – assassination – wasn’t as ominous as nuclear bombs or viruses but I thought the series managed to keep a “personal” touch to Jack’s character throughout the 8-season run.

As for the movie, I’m in the camp with those who feel it’s much better to get 12 hours of Jack than a condensed, 2-hour slot that would have drawn more parallels to the Bourne/Bond/McClane movies of the past.

The episode in the construction cabin is one of my fav episodes of 24! Sutherland has said that Season 1 is his favourite of the 8. I think it’s miles ahead of the others!

I got annoyed once when I saw a behind the scenes of Jon Cassar saying “it’s not proper 24 if we don’t have something blowing up”. I feel he has the wrong attitude