24: At the Movies

I'm going to watch last night's episode tonight, I swear. But check this news out:

Twentieth Century Fox's film and TV studios are conspiring to finally bring hit television series 24 to the bigscreen.

The film side has hired scribe Billy Ray ("State of Play," "Flightplan") to pen the script for the feature version.

Ray's pitch, which takes Jack Bauer to Europe, was a hit with Fox execs and producers of the high-concept television series.

Ray also wrote and directed "Breach" and "Shattered Glass."

Script is said to have come through 24 star Kiefer Sutherland, who's also an exec producer on the series -- and is said to be eager to turn the long-running TV skein into a feature franchise.

Insiders cautioned that a 24 feature is still very much in the preliminary stages. There are a number of factors influencing how quickly it moves ahead, including the fate of the TV show.

Fox doesn't have a deal for a ninth season of 24 and hasn't yet decided whether to order another season. Insiders said the network is waiting to see this week's ratings before making a decision, but the betting is that this season will be the final one.

The series' producers have been kicking around the possibility of a feature adaptation for several years and came close to moving ahead on one several years ago.

But the prospect of shooting a film while the show was still on the air was daunting for the cast and producers. Critics and fans of 24 have always enthused about how the show is produced like a feature -- and the film studio would want to move most of the 24 series crew to work on the film. That's difficult to do while 24 is in production, and hiatuses aren't nearly long enough to shoot a movie.

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