It’s not going to be on TV for another four months, but there’s no hiding our excitement at the prospect of seeing Kiefer Sutherland back in action as Jack Bauer in 24.
As previously reported, 24 will be back this November with a two-hour movie, leading into a full series in January 2009. A leaked trailer was posted on YouTube last week (we’ve embedded it again at the end of this post in case you missed it) and more information is slowly but surely trickling our way.
Here’s what we know so far…
- The prequel is called 24: Exile and takes place on inauguration day, as the country’s first woman President, Allison Taylor (Cherry Jones), is being sworn in.
- The bulk of the action takes place in the fictional African country of Sangala, where Jack is now working with his old special forces friend Carl Benton (Robert Carlyle) helping run a school for child war victims.
- Jon Voight plays the film’s big bad, a character called Jonas Hodges who is the leader of what executive producer Jon Cassar describes as “a Blackwater-type organisation” (referring to the controversial American private military company/mercenary organisation). Hodges will also feature in the seventh series proper.
- Other significant new casting includes former Ally McBeal actor Gil Bellows as a US State official working in Sangala and Colm Feore as President Taylor’s husband.
- The film sets up the story for the 24-episode seventh series in January 2009. It will be the first to be set outside of Los Angeles, with the action instead moving to Washington DC, where Jack has been subpoenaed to appear before a Senate committee to defend himself against accusations of crimes against humanity.
- The CTU will be no longer, but several familiar characters – including Chloe O’Brian (Mary Lynn Rajskub), Bill Buchanan (James Morrison) and, incredibly, the long-presumed-dead Tony Almeida (Carlos Bernard) – will feature, alongside FBI agents played by Janeane Garofalo, Annie Werschling, Jeffrey Nordling and Rhys Coiro.
24: Exile will air in America on Sunday 23 November and is due to be shown here in the UK on Sky One in the same week. We’ll let you know as soon as we hear anything more.
