Earlier today, Howard Gordon was on a Television Critics Association panel for the Showtime series “Homeland.” After the session finished up, we went over to Gordon for an update on the new “24: Live Another Day” miniseries that he’s producing for Fox. After so many false starts for a 24 movie, isn’t returning to television better anyway?
“Yes, because I love movies, they’re great but I’m so bullish on the medium of television,” answered Gordon. “I’ve always loved TV. It’s like the difference between a short story and a novel.”
With half the number of episodes as a typical “24” season, Gordon explained how they’re going to keep the real time gimmick. This isn’t a season of “12,” it’s still “24.”
“We’ll keep it a 24 hour story but we’ll tell 7-8, 8:15-9:15, 10-11 and then skip three hours if we need to,” said Gordon. “You know what? I think it’s going to actually make us not have to do the pretzel logic of some of the stuff. It’s exciting. It’s still early and we’re still full of hope, but I’m sure in about three weeks, I’ll be under the table crying.”
We also asked if Mary Lynn Rajskub would be returning as Chloe. Though no deals have been closed yet, Gordon was hopeful. “We literally just started so we don’t have the story locked down, but I think we’re going to try to get her. As soon as the deals are made and as soon as we have an idea of some of the players, [we’ll announce]. We’re sort of exploring too who’s out there and retrofitting people who are interesting.”
The “24” miniseries will pick up four years after Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) went on the run at the end of season eight. We pointed out that’s enough time for a new president, and Gordon acknowledged that fact.
“Undoubtedly there is, and even then you have to ask how do you not take that fact that we’ve been through four, five, six presidents, when you’ve taken the archetypes of the presidents, how do you do something new? That’s the trick. Or how do you keep telling the story that’s being told forward and not double back on yourself.”
We’ll be back with more “24” news as soon as we can get Chloe on a headset to hack into the mainframe.
