dierna
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# Posted: 11 Apr 2006 11:41
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http://tv.yahoo.com/news....giRsVoB
Here's a big spoiler alert for 24 fans: Jack Bauer survives this season. And he's in for at least 72 more hours of hell.
Kiefer Sutherland has inked a deal reportedly worth $40 million to remain on the pulse-quickening drama for another three seasons, ensuring CTU's main man will be fighting terrorists through 2009.
Fox issued a statement trumpeting Sutherland's extension but declined to confirm the financial details. The deal includes several perks for the actor, as well as a pay raise that elevates him to being the highest paid actor on a drama series, according to trade reports.
"The extraordinary support we have received...has made a difficult show like 24 succeed on all levels, and for that I'm truly grateful," Sutherland says in a statement. "I am thrilled to extend my commitment to all my friends and colleagues at 24, and I'm looking forward to this expanded relationship with 20th Century Fox."
In addition to Sutherland being ushered into a new tax bracket, he'll also get bumped up from coexecutive producer to executive producer on the hit show.
Another part of the Golden Globe winner's multifaceted deal, which officially kicks in this June, sets up Sutherland with his own production company and a two-year development deal with the studio. While the actor says his five-year stint on 24 has so far been "one of the most creative and rewarding experiences in my career," he is eager to see what he can do behind the camera.
"Programming on television has opened up and jumped leaps and bounds over the kinds of restrictions it once had," the budding multihyphenate tells Variety, citing Prison Break, The West Wing and Sex and the City as shows that inspired him to try his hand at developing.
While Sutherland's as yet untitled production company will focus mostly on developing dramas, the actor says he's equally open to comedies, should the right project come along.
"[Sutherland] is an extraordinary actor with amazing instincts, he's fiercely intelligent and he has fantastic taste in material. When he told us he had ambitions to create and produce television series, we jumped at the chance to help him achieve that goal,” says Dana Walden, copresident of 20th Century Fox.
"In his years on 24, Kiefer has demonstrated an incredible understanding of what makes for a compelling story or character, and he brings a passion to the process of making television that extends well beyond his own performance," adds Fox's other copresident, Gary Newman. "As the gifted producers of that show will tell you, he's been instrumental in maintaining 24's exceptional quality over five seasons. We believe he could become every bit as accomplished a producer as he is a performer."
Aside from an elongated TV run for 24, currently in its highest rated (averaging 14 million viewers each week) and most critically acclaimed year yet, Sutherland and show producers are considering bringing the drama to the big screen. The actor said he and the writers had once thought about cranking out a film version this summer, but the desire for quality control trumped their eagerness.
"It was really Joel [Surnow] and Bob [Cochran] and Howard [Gordon] realizing that if we were going to squeeze it in during the break, we would have been rushing it," Sutherland says in Variety. "If we were going to do it, we would do it next summer. It's still a big 'if.' We would not go forward unless we thought we could do it right."
According to Variety, doing it right would apparently require a departure from the series' real-time format, and would condense an entire day into the roughly two-hour period.
Still, despite plans for a movie being put on hold, Sutherland won't be away from Jack Bauer for long. The actor said show writers are planning on taking only about a month off when the season wraps in a few weeks before getting back to the grind on next year's story ideas.
"It's reinvigorated us to really attack the next season," the star says in Variety.
The new deal promises to keep the already-busy actor even busier.
Sutherland will be making the rounds in the multiplex in the coming days. This weekend, he gives voice to the lead lion in the Disney animated feature The Wild. Then, on Apr. 21, he stars with Michael Douglas, Kim Basinger and Eva Longoria in The Sentinel. The plot, which may sound familiar to avid 24 watchers, follows a disgraced special agent who tries to regain his good name by foiling a plot to assassinate the President.
And if that wasn't enough, Sutherland recently teamed with indie singer-songwriter Jude Cole to form their own record label, Ironworks Music. The first release, Rocco DeLuca and the Burden's I Trust You to Kill Me, hit stores Mar. 21.
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