Kiefer Wants '24' Movie, But Only After the Series

Perhaps I've got a heightened sense of this because we're on the subject, but what is it with Fox TV shows that make them better movie ideas than shows on ABC? After all, between Serenity, The Simpsons Movie, and the X-Files flicks, Fox has been on the forefront of spinning their shows upward through the ol' vertical integration chain. It can't be just the studio connection. All the TV titans are direct ties to studios. Maybe it's slightly more daring programming? One of the network's more daring shows, at least structurally, is 24, which not surprsingly, has been a subject of big screen rumors for years. And now that the show has been on the air for seven years and you can expect maybe only a handful of additional seasons, it's natural to think that the movie will happen sooner than later. At a press conference for Monsters vs. Aliens, Kiefer Sutherland again sounded up for the challenge of making the movie, but cautioned that there's simply no way to make it happen while the show is still on the air.

"We thought that it would be cruel and unusual punishment to ask the writers to write, in the course of 10 months, the equivalent of 12 films, and in their off times, 'By the way, if you have a great idea for a feature film that's so special, write that as well.'"

But there's more to it than simply writing two more episodes and turning them into a movie. Sutherland says the movie would have a different structure altogether.

"We've kind of collectively agreed that we would entertain the idea of a film when the series was finished and if people still wanted to see something like that. We would be really excited to do that, because the format that we would make the movie in, because we have discussed it, would be a two-hour representation of a 24-hour day. So we would lose the real-time aspect, which would be a huge freedom for the writers. But it's something we would not even start to do until the series was finished."

We don't know how long Fox plans to keep 24 on the air. Unless the ratings drop off significantly next season, the series will be on at least until May 2011. So if the movie does happen, you're probably looking at summer 2012 at the earliest.