The Press Association: 24 film gets spring 2012 shoot
December 6, 2011

(UKPA) - Kiefer Sutherland will soon be getting back into Jack Bauer mode as the 24 film prepares for a spring shoot.

The US actor will be reprising his role as the counter-terrorist secret agent in the big-screen version of the hit TV series, which producers Brian Grazer and 20th Century Fox are planning to start filming in April 2012 once he completes the current series of supernatural drama Touch, reported Deadline.

Director Tony Scott is apparently no longer attached to the movie, which has been drafted by Mark Bomback.

Kiefer previously revealed a script was in the works back in 2008, with production planned for summer 2009.

"The 24 movie would be a two-hour representation of a 24-hour day. That would be the first time that we would not do something in real time, but the characters would obviously all be derivative of the show," he said.

He also considered the idea of doing the movie as a prequel to the series.

"If we ended up doing it as a prequel and going back before the first season, obviously there's a lot of things that could change," he continued.

"If we go for it much further down the line from where the show is, again, there's a lot of room to change. It depends on the timing that they choose to set the film in."

24’ movie to begin filming in spring with Kiefer Sutherland reprising Jack Bauer role
By Ethan Sacks
NY Daily News
December 6, 2011

Nothing can stop Jack Bauer - not terrorists, and certainly not Hollywood development hell.

The long-delayed “24” movie is set to start filming in the spring, once star Kiefer Sutherland becomes available in April, Deadline.com reported.

Twentieth Century Fox has been eying a possible film franchise based on its television division hit since before the clock ran out on the show’s eighth and final season in 2010.

Director Tony Scott once hovered around the project but has since dropped out. Intelligence reports indicate that the movie - written by Billy Ray (“State of Play”), with some tweaks from “Wolverine’s” Mark Bomback - will have Bauer causing mayhem in Europe, and that it may deviate from the show’s trademark “real time” setup.

“It’s going to be a two-hour representation of a 24-hour day, so we were not going to be restrained by the real-time aspect of the TV show,” Sutherland told Britain’s Sky magazine last year. “With the TV show we always had to have the crisis come to us because we couldn’t move.”

The actor added: “Twice we put Jack on a plane and it was a disaster. This will be different - it will be very feasible to get from Eastern Europe to England in the course of 24 hours.”

Kiefer Sutherland: From the fight of 24 to a filmmaker who's `nuts'
By Jay Stone, Postmedia News
November 7, 2011

When Danish film director Lars von Trier made his famous ``jokes'' in Cannes (``I understand Hitler. He did some wrong things, absolutely, but I can see him sitting there in his bunker at the end. . . . I sympathize with him, yes, a little bit''), it not only hijacked the coverage of his film Melancholia, it also made him the talk of film festivals around the world.

In Cannes, he was banned and forced to apologize from a villa on the outskirts of town. At the Toronto International Film Festival, where Melancholia had a gala screening, he was the first topic of every conversation.

``First off, Lars is nuts,'' says Kiefer Sutherland, co-star of Melancholia. ``And he'll be the first to tell you that, too. And he's a real provocateur. . . . He's an unbelievably eccentric guy. I think the things he said are awful, but I also know him and care for him, and I felt really bad for him, as well. He felt awful. Just awful.''

Sutherland, though, seems to feel pretty good. At 45, the one-time Hollywood bad boy (drunk-driving charges, the time he broke the nose of a clothing designer by head-butting him) has cleaned up and settled down. He's in a good position to sympathize with a fellow artist undergoing a spell of bad publicity, especially when the artist helped open his eyes to his profession.

Sutherland comes to Melancholia after eight years on the hit TV show 24, which revived his career and put him back on to Hollywood's A-list. He says he loved doing it - ``it was the great education of my life'' - but it put him in a vacuum, a place where ``your whole world is that show.''

Melancholia, and von Trier, provided an extraordinary change.

Sutherland says that, in his career - 80 movies, 198 episodes of 24 - there was one thing he always did: He would always block out a scene with the other actors and the director, rehearse it, and then shoot it. But for some scenes in Melancholia, von Trier would have him do none of those things.

``He would put me and (co-star) Charlotte Gainsbourg outside a room and say, `This is the door and I want you to do the scene.' I didn't know where camera was, whether I should look left or right. So I would say to Charlotte Gainsbourg, `You go left I'll go right and we'll meet in the middle.' And all I heard was (in a passable Danish accent), `No talking.' And he stripped away every conventional piece of experience I had as an actor up to this point, basically, threw them out the window and kind of taught me how to rediscover acting in a very different way.''

Sutherland says that, sitting in a bar one night, he asked von Trier, ``What would have happened if you hated what we did?''

``And he said, `I give you the moment to impress me, and if you don't impress me, I make you do exactly what I want.''' And indeed, says Sutherland, there were times when the director provided specific instructions to the actors: ``Close your eyes. Say the line. Lift your head up. Stop there.''

``It was a great . . . spectrum of unbelievable freedom and deep, deep restraint. It was unbelievably challenging, and this is another thing: He always - which is contrary to most people's perception of Lars - made you feel good at the end of the day. And I loved him for that. He was not a bully. He made you feel you earned your day.''

The experience changed Sutherland's approach. He says that on 24, he would often go over his script the night before and start thinking about what he would do the next day before he had even talked to the other actors or the director. ``And what he taught me was: Try it. Just let it be, and then fix it. And that has informed me greatly. I do it in less of a mysterious way than Lars did every day, but there are aspects of me that have had a very profound effect. ''

In the film, Sutherland and Gainsbourg play a wealthy couple who are hosts of a wedding for her sister, played by Kirsten Dunst. The wedding goes badly - they often do in films by von Trier - partly because a strange blue planet, called Melancholia, is slowly moving toward Earth. Sutherland's character is a man of a scientific mind who assures his family that everything is going to be all right. He does this right up to the moment when it isn't. His character seems to represent the arrogance of man.

``The arrogance of man,'' Sutherland agrees. ``That's absolutely it.'' At one late-night discussion -there seemed to be a lot of them during the filming of Melancholia - von Trier told Sutherland that Dunst's character ``represents the two per cent of the population still in touch with their natural instincts, and they can feel trouble in the marrow of their bones. Your character represents the a--hole 98 per cent of the people, people who have lost it. There is nothing natural about you, and this belief (that) you can control your environment or anything else.''

It's a dramatic change from a TV series where Sutherland's character, Jack Bauer, saved the world every week. Sutherland, who has a new TV show, Touch, set to air on FOX next year, calls it ``a breath of fresh air.'' But he adds that those years on 24 were the greatest training ground an actor could have.

``If I was an Olympic runner, I would tell you that I trained six days a week, eight hours a day. As an actor, we're told less is more: Doing film every two years, that's the perfect model. I was making the equivalent of 12 films a year on 24. I got to run every day. What it did for my confidence as an actor, it just blew the doors open.'"

Kiefer Sutherland: '24' Movie Is 'Very Close'
By Mimi Turner
The Hollywood Reporter
October 4, 2011

The actor talked to buyers in Cannes about his return to television in the Tim Kring-produced "Touch," where he will also serve as executive producer.

Speaking at MIPCOM at the international launch of his new Tim Kring/Fox sci-fi drama Touch, Kiefer Sutherland revealed that screenwriter Billy Ray has all but completed the 24 script.

But the process of condensing the storyline into a movie format was more complex than anyone originally thought.

“We have worked very long and hard over the past two years on a screenplay but it was actually much harder to take this idea that was told in 24 hours and condense it into a two-hour movie,” he said.

Sutherland was in Cannes with Kring and Fox Entertainment Group president Kevin Reilly to talk about his return to television in Touch, the midseason Fox drama about a father whose autistic son seems to be able to predict the future.

Drawing on the ideas of quantum entanglement and the interconnectivity of matter and consciousness at the quantum and human levels, Kring’s follow-up to Heroes is not shy of addressing enormous themes.

Viewers will get a window on such mathematical concepts as the golden ratio, the Fibonacci sequences and the recurrent patterns of the Mandelbrot numbers found so frequently in nature - all wrapped around a father/son tale of alienation and reconnection.

Sutherland said he had been “blown away” by the concept after being urged to look at the script by Peter Chernin and Reilly.

“After 24 I didn’t expect to be back to television quite as quickly as I have. It was an incredible experience and I really wanted some time to digest it and there was more to digest than I thought. There were films I wanted to do” Sutherland said, but once he read the story, he couldn’t let it go.

“I got to about page twenty five and I remember I put it down and just said ‘s***’ there’s no way around it, I have to do it.”

The story of a father who can’t touch or reach his autistic son but desperately wants to find a way to communicate with him gave him range to play a whole set of emotions that he had never expressed in his near-decade long performance as Jack Bauer.

“When I talked to Tim [Kring] about what he wanted to accomplish he said he wanted it to be about the emotion. My job in 24 was to keep all the emotion back, so for me to hear that as an actor was such an open door for me.”

Just as in Heroes, Kring is on a mission to push boundaries in Touch -- both in its intellectual, scientific and spiritual themes – and also in the way that the story is told in four countries. Actors in Ireland, Iraq and Japan tell different aspects of the story, keeping foreign-language dialog where relevant among the actors.

“I have had one theme in my writing for the last decade, that we live in a truly interconnected universe that I just keep going back to,” said Kring. “I wanted to elevate that this time. This is an entertainment show, but I also feel that I am at a certain point in my career when I want to make sure I am using whatever I have to put a message out that I believe in.”

Sutherland is also passionate about the theme of not underselling to audiences and challenging them.

“There is something that really does bind us together and I think it is an unbelievably positive message, and the fact that you can use something that is a really interesting theoretical science to send that message out is really powerful.”

And Sutherland isn’t not worried that the message will go over viewers’ heads.

“In America we have this terrible habit of underestimating the audience. If you actually give an audience the best you’ve got and you don’t underestimate them, the return is unbelievable.”

Sony's AXN acquires Kiefer Sutherland drama The Confession
TBI - Television Business International
September 8, 2011

Sony Pictures Television has acquired Kiefer Sutherland action drama The Confession to air across its networks in Europe, Asia and Latin America.

The deal is the latest multi-territory acquisition for the Hollywood studio's AXN brand and it will roll out the Digital Broadcasting Group-produced series from September.

The Confession, which was originally a multi-platform series, follows a hitman, played by 24 star Sutherland, who goes to church to confess his sins to a priest, played by John Hurt.

The series will initially launch on AXN Korea before being rolled out digitally across Central Europe followed by Spain, Portugal, Latin America and Asia.

Marie Jacobson, executive vice president, programming and production, networks, SPT, told TBIvision: "The challenge is being a 25+ action platform and finding digital projects that work on air. The Confession was the perfect solution. We're trying to get it into the hands of as many consumer as possible."

She added that the project, which came via talent agency CAA, is part of the studio's strategy of launching original first run series and follows its multi-territory deal for Entertainment One-produced legal drama The Firm.

'Simpsons' lines up guests; Antarctica trip

SAN DIEGO, July 24 (UPI) -- A bevy of guest stars including Joan Rivers and Kiefer Sutherland is lined up for the new season of "The Simpsons," the creators said at Comic-Con in San Diego.

Gordon Ramsey and Michael Cera are also on the guest list for the Fox animated series, which will include one episode that takes the family to the South Pole.

The Hollywood Reporter said Sunday the plans also include a look at a Simpson's Christmas 30 years in the future, but don't look for a crossover episode with sister series "Futurama." Matt Groening, who created both series, told the Comic-Con crowd: "'Futurama' is real. 'The Simpsons' is just a cartoon."

In the real world, a new Simpsons-themed ride has opened at Universal Studios. Groening assured the audience "your minds will be blown within the first three seconds."

Kiefer Sutherland Splits With Long-Term Girlfriend
FoxNews.com
July 5, 2011

New York - Kiefer Sutherland is back in the singles game after splitting with his girlfriend of nearly three years, Allure magazine style director Siobhan Bonnouvrier, sources told the New York Post.

The "24" star, who starred in Broadway's "That Championship Season" until the end of May, developed a friendship with wealthy New York mom Eleanor Propp, numerous sources said.

Propp told the Post, "I am not dating Kiefer. We are just friends."

FOX’s ‘Touch’ Adds Danny Glover & Young Lead David Mazouz
By Keven Yeoman
Screen Rant
June 10, 2011

FOX’s high-profile drama ‘Touch’ (from ‘Heroes’ creator Tim Kring) finds its young lead in David Mazouz, just days before signing Danny Glover, who will join the already-cast Kiefer Sutherland.

Months after nabbing Kiefer Sutherland to play the father of an autistic boy with the ability to predict the future, Tim Kring’s Touch seemingly went dormant. Now the show is back in the spotlight after casting child actor David Mazouz, in addition to signing actor Danny Glover for an important recurring role.

Known to many as the best partner a semi-psychotic cop could have, Glover has enjoyed a storied career spanning more than three decades - earning the actor several accolades and a strong fan base.

Recently, Glover has been shifting his time between roles in major motion pictures like Roland Emmerich’s 2012, the Chris Rock remake of Frank Oz’s Death at a Funeral, and guest spots on popular television shows. After stints on Human Target, Brothers & Sisters and more, the actor is currently scheduled to appear in a July episode of TNT’s Leverage, alongside Timothy Hutton and his group of altruistic grifters.

According to TV Line, Glover has signed to play Arthur DeWitt in Touch, a professor specializing in dealing with children who have special abilities when it comes to numbers - he’s like Charles Xavier for mathletes. While the role is a major one, it is unclear at this time how the DeWitt character will play into the overall story.

Additionally, Touch has cast youngster David Mazouz in the all-important role of Jake Bohm - the autistic son of Martin Bohm (Sutherland), on which the entire series will rely. Likely unfamiliar to many, Mazouz’s credits include the Lifetime movie Amish Grace, in addition to appearances on CBS’s Mike & Molly, and ABC’s Private Practice.

For those who don’t know, Mazouz will portray an autistic child who never speaks, and refuses to be touched, but has the uncanny ability to see the world as a series of unified events - often well before they occur.

Since Kring took some hits for the last season(s) of Heroes, there is plenty of skepticism surrounding this new series. However, FOX (more specifically entertainment president Kevin Reilly) has expressed the network’s interest in the series by calling Touch “a compelling drama” with “a really extraordinary script.”

Even with the backing of FOX’s entertainment president, having a show where the primary character refuses to speak may be a serious challenge – which could be why Kring and his fellow producers have gone to such lengths to secure top-notch talent like Sutherland and Glover to actually lead the program.

Touch has been on FOX’s slate since early this year, so perhaps more notable than the series’ casting announcements has been the amount of time that has elapsed between each of them. Since Sutherland has been busy on Broadway in Jason Miller’s That Championship Season, production on Touch was ostensibly placed on the backburner. Now that the actor’s stage duties are nearing completion, the pilot should begin shooting very soon, so more casting announcements will likely be imminent.

If all goes well, FOX is expected to announce Touch as a mid-season replacement, so stay tuned for potential airdates.

Source: TV Line, Deadline

Undercovers’ Star Gugu Mbatha-Raw Set As Female Lead In Fox’s Pilot ‘Touch’
By Nellie Andreeva
Deadline.com
June 10, 2011

EXCLUSIVE: They kicked butt on their previous shows, now they're going toe-to-toe. British actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw, the breakout star of J.J. Abrams' short-lived NBC spy dramedy Undercovers, has landed the female lead opposite 24 alum Kiefer Sutherland in the Fox drama pilot Touch, written by Tim Kring. The project, which is considered a lock for a midseason series order, centers on Martin (Sutherland), who discovers that his genius son Jake (David Mazouz) is communicating with him through a complex series of numbers and may even be able to predict events before they happen. Mbatha-Raw will play Clea Hopkins, a social worker with Child and Family Services, who is evaluating Martin's living situation to determine whether or not his son Jake should remain in the home. Mbatha-Raw completes the pilot's core four-member cast, which also includes Danny Glover. Mbatha-Raw, repped by CAA, Principal and UK's Curtis Brown, will next be seen in Larry Crowne.

Exclusive: Danny Glover Joins Kiefer Sutherland in Fox's Touch
By Michael Ausiello
TVLine - TVLine
June 9, 2011

Touch has added another lethal weapon to its ranks.

Sources confirm to TVLine exclusively that Danny Glover has been cast opposite Kiefer Sutherland in Fox’s high profile drama pilot, which revolves around a father (Sutherland) who discovers that his son (David Mazouz) can predict events before they happen.

Glover will play Arthur DeWitt, a professor and an expert on children who possess special gifts when it comes to numbers.

Heroes creator Tim Kring penned the script and will serve as an exec producer.

Assuming Fox picks the project up to series, Touch will likely debut at midseason.

Image Entertainment to Obtain THE CONFESSION Starring Kiefer Sutherland and John Hurt
Business Wire
May 25, 2011

In its most recent agreement, Image Entertainment, Inc. (OTCQB: DISK) is in final negotiations to obtain the rights to release the cutting-edge web series, THE CONFESSION starring Kiefer Sutherland. The series will be reformatted into a feature length film. Image Entertainment will have both the home entertainment and digital rights to the THE CONFESSION. The announcement was made by Image's Chief Acquisitions Officer, Bill Bromiley.

"This web series is truly unique and has gained a dedicated following since its debut in late March," stated Bromiley. "We look forward to working with the producers and Digital Broadcasting Group to create an edge-of-your-seat thriller."

Starring Kiefer Sutherland, THE CONFESSION is a story of redemption and an exploration of good and evil featuring a hit man (Sutherland), and a priest (John Hurt). The story begins on Christmas Eve, when the hit-man enters a church to confess his sins to the priest. Through a series of gripping flashbacks, the Confessor's journey is revealed - laying out what has brought him to this moment and leading the audience to the dramatic ending where the man's chances at ultimate redemption hang in the balance. While at first the Confessor seems to be an evil, cold-blooded killing machine and the Priest the ultimate arbiter of good, as the series develops, it becomes clear that both characters are much more complicated than either could have suspected.

In just ten short weeks, THE CONFESSION has been labeled as "the best shorts I've ever seen" to "simply outstanding."

ABOUT IMAGE ENTERTAINMENT

Image Entertainment, Inc. is a leading independent licensee and distributor of entertainment programming in North America, with approximately 3,200 exclusive DVD titles and approximately 340 exclusive CD titles in domestic release and more than 450 programs internationally via sublicense agreements. For many of its titles, the Company has exclusive audio and broadcast rights, as well as digital download rights to over 2,100 video programs and approximately 400 audio titles containing more than 6,000 individual tracks. The Company is headquartered in Chatsworth, California. For more information about Image Entertainment, Inc., please go to www.image-entertainment.com.

For Image Entertainment
Scott Barton, 323-653-5153
media@image-entertainment.com

Kiefer Sutherland Web Series, The Confession, Gets Feature Film Deal
By Jeremy Scott
ReelSEO.com
May 2011

After years of being considered a lesser form of online video, web series are finally starting to get their due. The recent Mortal Kombat: Legacy series is going strong, attracting millions of viewers. The Guild has a total of 45 million views for its combined episodes, and has won multiple awards. And now The Confession, a Kiefer Sutherland-led web series about an assassin having a change of heart, has been given a movie deal from L.A.-based Image Entertainment.

The Confession is a ten-part series, with each episode running between 5 and 9 minutes. In it, Sutherland’s hitman character enters a church confession booth, and confesses his sins to a priest played by John Hurt. Much of the rest of the story is filled in through flashbacks.

The entire series is on Hulu, which means that we can’t really know how many viewers it’s had, but we can probably assume it’s a lot. There aren’t a lot of web series getting movie deals these days… it makes sense that it must have found some kind of audience. Plus, the official Facebook page for The Confession has over 24,000 fans.

Now, I guess it would be easy to detract from this accomplishment by pointing out that most web series don’t have major Hollywood stars in them. And that’s true. The Confession probably gained some audience members just on Sutherland’s pre-existing fame alone. So getting a movie deal isn’t maybe as impressive as if my neighbor and I started a web series that got a movie deal.

But it’s still impressive. It’s still an important development. The Confession never ran on television… it was created specifically for web audiences. And historically, that kind of serial content has struggled to find an audience. That this series was popular enough to warrant a feature film suggests maybe web series are gaining more acceptance among viewers.

Besides, over time… most viewers who tuned in because they already loved Sutherland would eventually move on if there wasn’t something engaging about the series.

Ultimately, viewers will watch what they think is good. It just seems to me that web series are shedding some of the labels the genre has carried for years and beginning to be seen as another legitimate source for quality video entertainment.

Fairytale of New York Gets Kiefer Sutherland and Kate Bosworth
By Brian Gallagher
MovieWeb.com
May 15, 2011

Kiefer Suthelrand and Kate Bosworth are set to star in the upcoming indie romance Fairytale of New York for The Little Film Co.

The story centers on a cynical Irish comic who falls for a New York City woman while on a comedy tour. Lee Cleary will direct from a screenplay by Jeff Murphy. Production will take place in Northern Ireland and New York City, although it isn't clear when shooting will begin.

Lisa Katselas and Dan Reardon are on board as producers. Here's what Lisa Katselas had to say about this project.

"Fairytale of New York lets us observe what most of us hope for in a relationship and then takes us further. To achieve this, we needed to find actors with a magical connection -- and we have in Kiefer and Kate."

Fairytale of New York comes to theaters in 2013 and stars Kiefer Sutherland, Kate Bosworth. The film is directed by Lee Cleary.

KIEFER SUTHERLAND IS IN ‘TOUCH’ WITH A NEW FOX SERIES
Hollywood Celebrity and Entertainment Daily News
May 16, 2011

Kiefer Sutherland is back at Fox with the midseason series Touch, which is created by Heroes head Tim Kring. Touch focuses on Martin Bohm, a man who discovers his 11-year-old son with special needs has a unique ability to find connections and patterns in the world.

“What made me the most interested in Touch is the script,” says Sutherland, whose Broadway run on That Championship Season comes to a close on May 29th. “It’s the material. I certainly know what it’s like to do a series for a long period of time. We did 24 for eight years, so it is not a light commitment. It is not something you enter into without a lot of thought. This script is just beautiful and it has such great opportunity to grow. I love the idea of telling a story each week that has a beginning, middle and an end. And then the character. I have great respect for Martin and his desire to have as full a relationship with his son as he possibly can. That’s a struggle, and as an actor, that struggle is going to be something wonderful to play.”

Kiefer Sutherland Jumps On Board Parisian-Set Heist Pic, Not The 24 Movie Like You Hope
By Sean O'Connell
CinemaBlend.com
May 11, 2011

The only project Kiefer Sutherland fans want to hear the actor attached to needs to have 24 in the title. Unfortunately for them, news out of Cannes could put super-agent Jack Bauer’s planned feature-length adventure on hold for a little while longer.

Sutherland, instead, will join the cast of Brad Mirman’s heist picture Sleight of Hand, according to Deadline. Gerard Depardieu, Til Schweiger, Thomas Jane, Johnny Hallyday, Jon Lovitz and Eric Cantona already have been cast in the film, which plans to shoot this summer in Paris. Mirman and Sutherland collaborated on the Hulu-based television series The Confession, which also starred John Hurt, but it will be interesting to see what they can do with a larger budget in an international setting.

As for the rumored 24 film, there hasn’t been much to report as of late. Scripts have been traded back and forth, and Sutherland stated a while back that he still believes it will happen. In the meantime, he’s staying busy by acting in other projects, but the longer executives wait to return to Bauer’s high-octane world of global counterterrorism, the foggier our memories become. How long are we willing to wait to see Jack Bauer fighting evil on the big screen? Has the window of opportunity for a 24 movie already passed?

EXCLUSIVE: Brad Mirman Gives Us The Confession - MovieWeb.com

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BBC News - Donald Sutherland gets Walk of Fame star
January 27, 2011

Veteran actor Donald Sutherland has been honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles.

The 75-year-old's honour was unveiled outside the Roosevelt Hotel next to the star of his son, Kiefer.

Sutherland joked that getting the star was better than a headstone at a cemetery as he could "come and visit".

The Canadian-born actor, whose career has spanned five decades, has appeared in movies including The Dirty Dozen, Klute, MASH and Space Cowboys.

"I could get a chair and sit here, or a bucket and a mop and clean it, and make sure that people don't step on it," the actor joked.

Kiefer Sutherland, who was not able to attend the ceremony because of work commitments, sent a message that was read out by actor Colin Farrell.

"I selfishly wanted to be there to simply tell you how proud I am to have you as my father and how even more proud I am to be your son," he wrote.

Donald Sutherland has starred in some 130 movies during his career.

He also appeared in Don't Look Now, JFK, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Ordinary People and Animal House.

His latest film, The Mechanic, is released this week, while another, Roman epic The Eagle, will be released in the US next month and in the UK in March.

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The Canadian Press: Donald Sutherland gets star on Hollywood Walk of Fame, next to son Kiefer
January 27, 2011

By The Associated Press (CP) - LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Versatile actor Donald Sutherland, who has played everything from a Nazi spy to an aging astronaut, was honoured Wednesday with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

His star was unveiled outside the Roosevelt Hotel next to son Kiefer Sutherland's star.

The elder Sutherland joked that getting a star was better than a headstone at a cemetery.

"This marker I can actually come and visit," Sutherland, 75, said. "I could get a chair and sit here, or a bucket and a mop and clean it, and make sure that people don't step on it."

Kiefer Sutherland wasn't able to attend the ceremony because of work obligations in New York. He wrote a message that was read by Colin Farrell, his father's co-star in the comedy "Horrible Bosses" due out later this year.

"I selfishly wanted to be there to simply tell you how proud I am to have you as my father and how even more proud I am to be your son," Kiefer Sutherland wrote.

The career of Canadian-born Donald Sutherland has spanned nearly five decades and included appearances in the movies "The Dirty Dozen," ''The Day of the Locust," ''Ordinary People" and "Space Cowboys."

He won Emmy and Golden Globe awards for his role in the 1995 television crime drama "Citizen X" and another Golden Globe award for his portrayal of presidential adviser Clark Clifford in the 2002 television movie "Path to War."

He appears in the thriller "The Mechanic" and the upcoming Roman epic "The Eagle."

He said he loves working and has no plans to retire.

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Donald Sutherland set to receive star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame next to son Kiefer's
Entertainment News from OnTheRedCarpet.com
January 26, 2011

Donald Sutherland is set to receive a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame on January 26, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce says.

The actor, 75, will receive the 2,430th star which will be placed at 7024 Hollywood Boulevard, next to his son's star, Kiefer Sutherland of "24" fame.

Collin Farrell, who co-stars in the upcoming comedy "Horrible Bosses" with Southerland, will speak at the ceremony as well as Ron Meyer, the president and chief operating officer at Universal Studios.

Sutherland has a long list of acting credits that include films like "MASH," "Ordinary People," "The Dirty Dozen," "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," "JFK," "Backdraft," "Cold Mountain," and "The Italian Job." He's also appeared on television with roles in "Dirty Sexy Money," "Commander-in-Chief," and a role in the made-for-television movie "Human Trafficking."

Sutherland won a Golden Globe and Emmy award for "Citizen X" in 1996, and another Golden Globe for "Path to War" in 2003.

Up next, the actor will appear in the upcoming remake "The Mechanic" with Jason Statham due out on Friday.

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Despite Kiefer Sutherland’s Claims, A ‘24’ Movie Is Not Shooting In The Next Eight Months
The Playlist
January 21, 2011

Sometimes Hollywood is like a magical genie: if you talk about a project enough times, it will get a greenlight, simply because people interpret “talking about” to be “buzz” and “anticipation” which, somewhere down the line, is supposed to equal dollars. So this sudden chatter regarding a “24” movie might be doing the TV adaptation a favor, as it recently hit a roadblock with Fox rejecting a script from “Flightplan” and “Breach” scribe Billy Ray.

Of course, this bad news was the most anyone has said about a “24” movie in about a year, so it certainly got the attention of star Kiefer Sutherland, who told the vapid suckboxes over at Extra that the movie was in fact eight months away from shooting. Of course, Sutherland’s excitement over his own movie franchise may be a case of irrational exuberance, as two anonymous employees of the possible maybe likely kinda sorta production have confirmed that Fox has no end-of-year plans to shoot, and are currently still meeting with writers for a whole new pitch.

Of course, these sources also report that Sutherland is not misinformed, and that he has been meeting with other writers for a new “24” draft, which remains “a priority for the studio and the producers.” Which means: we have now discussed a “24” movie to the point where it looks like we (and a possible lone wolf in the comments section) are excited for a “24” movie. Fox wins. Damn you, Fox, you always win.

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Is The 24 Movie Happening?
Movies News at IGN
January 21, 2011

Jack Bauer says yes, 20th Century Fox says something else.

The greenlight keeps getting turned off and on when it comes to the movie based on FOX's 24, starring Kiefer Sutherland as interrogation-enthusiast Jack Bauer. It's currently set to "off". Again.

Sutherland told the TV show Extra that a 24 movie will start shooting in eight months. A publicist for distributor 20th Century Fox delivered a throat punch to that remark.

"Unfortunately, Kiefer is overly optimistic," the publicist told The Hollywood Reporter. "The project is still in development, with no director attached. All the other details have been reported."

Enemy of the State director Tony Scott was rumored to be circling the project, which hit another speed bump earlier this month when Fox passed on the movie's script by Billy Ray (Shattered Glass).

In his comments to Extra, Sutherland said it was difficult to find a "story that is unique" and would "service the history of the show." Yet producer Howard Gordon seems confident that Jack will get his torture on some day.

"I was disappointed [Fox] passed on the script, Gordon said. "But I'm certainly hopeful that the movie will get made at some point," he says. "Anecdotally, I've heard from people who are really missing the show and I do think there is more life in Jack Bauer."

Sadly, there probably isn't much life left in the execs who shot the movie down. Clearly, they don't know what happens to people when they tell Jack Bauer "No."

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Kiefer Sutherland, John Hurt to Star in Web-Based Action Series
The Hollywood Reporter Staff
January 13, 2011

Kiefer Sutherland and two-time Academy Award nominee John Hurt are teaming up for The Confession, a new scripted Web action series, Digital Broadcasting Group announced Thursday.

The ten 5-minute episodes - in which Sutherland plays a hitman who talks to a priest (Hurt) about why his victims deserved to die -- will air on HULU.com in March, and be distributed across DBG.

Sutherland is executive producing the series with Chris Young and Joseph Gomes of DBG and Maura Mandt of Maggie Vision.

The project marks Sutherland’s first endeavor in web development.

“This experience that is The Confession has taken everything I have learned over the last 25 years from storytelling to acting and challenged it in a way like no other experience that I’ve had,” Sutherland said in a statement. ”From five to seven minute episodes, to creating a character that I believe is edgy enough to stand out and make an impression in the vast Internet. In short, I’m having a blast.”

His last major role was playing government agent Jack Bauer on Fox's critically-praised 24.

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Next up for Kiefer Sutherland: An internet series!
By Lynette Rice
EW.com
January 12, 2011

Kiefer Sutherland, internet star? That’s the plan: EW has learned exclusively that Sutherland will follow up his critically-beloved run on 24 with a web series that’ll bow on Hulu this March. Dubbed The Confession, the 10 five-to-seven-minute webisodes will feature Sutherland as a hitman who has a theological discussion with a priest (John Hurt of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows) about why his victims deserved to die. The series, which was written and directed by Brad Mirman, ends with one helluva twist.

“It came about in such a different way,” Sutherland tells EW exclusively. ”I was meeting a couple friends of mine, who wanted to introduce me to Chris Young (of Digital Broadcasting Group). I know so little about the internet, but that’s what a lot of friends do for work. Most of that stuff being produced for the internet is comedy, very much like Jackass kind of material, which is great but didn’t appeal to me.

“Chris started talking about wanting to do a drama, but his criteria was so different. A drama in five-minute episodes! It was one of those things, like a puzzle over the course of the lunch. It can’t be that complicated to figure out a story in five minutes, right? I couldn’t, and it frustrated the crap out of me. So I went home that night, still thinking about it, and it stayed with me for three days. I was falling asleep when I literally got this idea of a confessional.”

The Confession was shot over nine days in New York last month, right before Sutherland began rehearsals for Broadway’s That Championship Season, which also stars Jason Patric and Chris Noth. “In all fairness, it looks fantastic,” Sutherland said of the web series, which he is exec producing with Young, Joseph Gomes and Maura Mandt. ”We shot it in the fifth-largest snow storm. It was pretty amazing.”

Much of the story plays out in action-packed flashbacks. “We called on a lot of favors,” Sutherland admitted. “A dollar is a dollar. It gets you what you get. There’s no way around that, so you’re phoning dear friends for favors. None of us were paid what we normally get paid. Everybody found their own challenge in it, and that was the reason to do it. All of us believe very strongly that the internet is the future, the largest network in world, with the ability to reach a big audience.”

Young, who serves as the CEO of DBG, released this statement: “The Confession sets a precedent for what is possible in original webisodic content. Never before has something of this magnitude and motion picture quality come to the third screen. I’m thrilled to be working with such A-list talent and top-tier sponsors to finally capture and crystallize the seismic shift in how content of this caliber is released, distributed and enjoyed by an audience that will rival that of a hit television series.”

But fear not, Sutherland fans: The ex-Jack Bauer has not given up on primetime TV. ”We have a couple ideas we are working on that we are very excited about. 24 was a lot of work, it certainly had its ups and downs. But for so many reasons, it was one of the great experiences of my life. I miss the daily grind of it, which I was surprised about because that’s the one thing you complain about all the time. Be careful what you ask for!”

And more good news about the 24 franchise: Sutherland says a big-screen version is still in the works and, in fact, he hopes to begin production within a year. Though Fox ultimately nixed a script by Billy Ray (State of Play), the movie remains “the little engine that could,” Sutherland tells EW. He acknowledged that 20th Century Fox has been working with director/producer Tony Scott (Man on Fire, The Good Wife) on the project. “Billy did a fantastic job and there are aspects of that story [that will remain],” the actor says. “I couldn’t be more thrilled.”

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Jack Bauer: Saving the World, Breaking Guinness Records with Marathon Broadcast in Japan - Japan Real Time
By Yoree Koh - Wall Street Journal
January 6, 2011

Jack Bauer is so tough he can save the world seven times in one week and set a new Guinness World Record without any shuteye.

At least that’s what the Fox television network in Japan has aimed for this week. It has been running all seven seasons of the drama “24” nonstop to get fans amply pumped for the eighth and final season. Fox, owned by News Corp, which also owns Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal, said it plans to broadcast the last season, or day rather, sometime this year. Secret agent Bauer finally went into retirement in the U.S. in May when the series finale was broadcast.

The 168 hour marathon that began on Jan. 1 is homing in on a new world record for the “longest uninterrupted transmission of a TV series.” The existing record was set in 2008 when a German pay-TV channel broadcast the 236 episodes that comprised the decade-long series of “Friends” in its entirety – that’s 118 hours of watching Ross and Rachel pine for one another.

The stop-at-nothing counter-terrorism specialist Jack Bauer was one of the biggest overseas dramas to hit Japan among Fox’s basket of shows playing here in recent years, according to Fox Japan. While the network declined to disclose total Japanese viewership over the years, the series has consistently ranked among the top overseas DVD rentals. The final season was the only TV series ranked in the top 20 most rented overseas DVDs in December, according to Tsutaya, a Japanese entertainment chain store.

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