Will Jack Bauer Finally Make His Way to the Big Screen? I Hope So!

So I just read on IGN.com that a 24 theatrical film may finally be in the works at 20th Century Studios! The movie is still in the early stages of development by producer Brian Grazer and Imagine Entertainment, but here's hoping that we see Kiefer Sutherland return as Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU) agent Jack Bauer...and that it won't be a prequel featuring a younger version of the shoot-first-and-ask-questions-later CTU operative.

There was a 24 movie 16 years ago (known as 24: Redemption—which took place between Seasons 6 and 7 of the hit FOX TV drama), but it was made for the small screen. And the last time Jack Bauer appeared on television was 10 years ago, in the 24: Live Another Day (LAD) miniseries.

LAD ended after 12 episodes with Bauer surrendering himself to the Russians for events that transpired as far back as Season 6. With the 24 film no doubt having a considerable budget since it will be tailored for the big screen (and 20th Century Studios will have the financial resources of Disney—its parent company—at its disposal), it may be safe to say that there'll be an extravagant action sequence showing Jack escaping from the Russian prison he's been held at for a decade...assuming the timeline reflects the actual number of years that passed between LAD and now.

I just want Bauer to yell "Damn it" on the big screen like he did multiple times throughout 24's 9-season span! (2017's 12-episode 24: Legacy starring Corey Hawkins is an outlier.)

Carry on.




Richard T. Par

Star Wars: Episode VII Has Begun Filming!

"Officially begun, production has." These were the words, in Yoda-speak, that let followers of Star Wars' Facebook fan page know that J.J. Abrams has begun principal photography on Star Wars: Episode VII this morning. Production is taking place at London's Pinewood Studios (where the majority of James Bond movies and other films like Guardians of the Galaxy and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug were shot). A B-roll shoot has been taking place in Abu Dhabi for the past few weeks, but today is the day that Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher and newcomers like Adam Driver and John Boyega (who currently plays a U.S. drone pilot accused of terrorism on FOX's 24: Live Another Day) begin adding a new chapter to the Star Wars saga. The countdown to seeing the Galaxy far, far away back on the big screen next year has officially begun!

Star Wars: Episode VII... The Cast is Announced!

Despite the fact that Billy Dee Williams apparently won't be back to reprise his role as Lando Calrissian in next year's installment, it's great to see the official cast for Star Wars: Episode VII announced today. With Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford, Peter Mayhew, Anthony Daniels and Kenny Baker back to reprise their iconic roles from the Original Trilogy (with Mayhew, Daniels and Baker the only ones to work on the prequels as well), newcomers who will join them in the seventh live-action Star Wars movie include John Boyega (Attack the Block, FOX TV's 24: Live Another Day), Daisy Ridley (Silent Witness, Scrawl), Adam Driver (HBO's Girls, Lincoln), Oscar Isaac (Sucker Punch, The Bourne Legacy), Andy Serkis (The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Rise of the Planet of the Apes), Domhnall Gleeson (Dredd, 2010's True Grit) and Max von Sydow (The Exorcist, Minority Report). Today's announcement comes a few weeks before principal photography is set to officially begin on Episode VII, and on the same day that the table read (shown below) was held in London between director J.J. Abrams and the actors who will bring his vision of that Galaxy far, far away to life. December of 2015 can't come soon enough!

Pompeii...

Earlier today, I watched Paul W.S. Anderson's cinematic take on the volcanic eruption that wiped out a Roman city back in 79 A.D., and all I can say is, this was one of the most derivative movies I've seen in a while. Clearly, Anderson and/or his screenwriting team for Pompeii must have viewed the film Gladiator (and maybe the 2004 Brad Pitt flick, Troy) around the time the script was being written. From a man (Milo, played by Kit Harington) who lost his family due to a murderous Roman politician (Corvus, played by Kiefer Sutherland) and befriending an African slave (Atticus, played by Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) who he was suppose to fight to the death in a gladiatorial fight, to the 'thumb-down' gesture and the line, "We who are about to die, salute you," Pompeii is the unofficial and CGI-heavy sequel to Ridley Scott's 2001 Academy Award winner. While the thumb-down gesture and "We who are about to die..." salute was used in real life (I think), I find it amusing that Anderson must have presumed that enough time had passed since Russell Crowe's Oscar-winning take on Maximus to copy Scott's flick pretty much scene-by-scene...up until the eruption of Mount Vesuvius itself. Not surprisingly, the visual effects of the volcano coming to life and decimating Pompeii was top-notch—and I'm tempted to see how the visuals in Pompeii compare to those of 1997's Volcano and Dante's Peak. Or the volcanic eruptions on the planet Mustafar in Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, for that matter.



I have to give props to Anderson for opening the movie with a shot of Pompeii victims completely encased in volcanic ash...which is what really happened. You can actually see plaster casts of these poor souls in person at the Archaeological Museum of Naples in Italy today. Apart from the volcano part, I also wanted to check out this film just to see how well Kiefer Sutherland pulled off a Roman accent as Corvus—what with me being a huge fan of 24 and all. I'm also a big fan of Emily Browning after watching her ass-kicking performance as Babydoll in the 2011 Zack Snyder flick, Sucker Punch (Browning was also in the 2004 Jim Carrey film, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events...but she wasn't exactly toting a sword or automatic rifles in that movie). And in case you're wondering, no, not even her character Cassia was able to avoid Vesuvius' wrath. That is all.

Olympus Has Fallen: Movie Review... I saw the White House-invasion action flick today, and the first thing that I want to say is, Gerard Butler did to the terrorists what Jack Bauer would've done if the now-defunct FOX TV show 24 was on HBO, Starz or Showtime instead. In other words, more gory scenes where bad guys nonchalantly get shot in the head and even knives jammed into their jugulars and/or craniums by the guy who played a Spartan in 2007's 300. Not that this is a bad thing (assuming you're not a pacifist who deplores ultra-violent movies, or just aren't a fan of Gerard Butler)... The way that the intruders make their way into the House On 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is so merciless and brutal that you want an ex-Special Forces-turned-Secret Service agent showing up on scene to put a dent in the insurgents' plans. That's where Butler comes along.



Nitpicking-wise, there are many things to critique about in Olympus Has Fallen. First and foremost, this film isn't even close to being original. The movie opens and concludes with a saturated look at the American flag (a la Saving Private Ryan); and not only did he see 24, but the screenwriter must have also watched 1997's Air Force One while writing Olympus' script. Instead of Russian terrorists led by none other than Gary Oldman, you have rogue Korean commandos who fall under the command of Rick Yune [of 2001's The Fast and the Furious, 2002's Die Another Day (in which Yune played a North Korean-born Bond villain), last year's The Man with the Iron Fists and 2009's Ninja Assassin] wreaking havoc on the U.S. government. And instead of Air Force One, we, of course, have the White House being the iconic locale that's (somewhat plausibly) invaded by foreign attackers. Plus, there's a mole in the Secret Service that allows the terrorists to gain access to the President (this time played by Aaron Eckhart and not Harrison Ford). And lastly, instead of the late Jerry Goldsmith—who composed the memorable score for Air Force One, you have Trevor Morris...whose bombastic but patriotic music for Olympus Has Fallen was obviously inspired by Air Force One and maybe even Hans Zimmer's tune for 2001's Pearl Harbor. In regards to the movie's visual effects, which looked really fake in the trailer, the computer-generated shots appeared a lot better in the actual movie. There were still some scenes with shoddy FX work (namely, the F-22 Raptors chasing after the AC-130 gunship that strafes Washington, D.C., and the shots of CG Black Hawk helicopters superimposed with grainy stock footage of Capitol Hill and other D.C. landmarks), but other than those, I was hardly taken out of the film with these post-production imperfections, hah. Imagine if the venerable FX house Industrial Light & Magic worked on Olympus Has Fallen... Wow. That would've been cool.



In regards to what I enjoyed about Olympus Has Fallen, it's the fact that this is a feel-good action flick if you're a Yank. Sure, pretty much all of the Secret Service agents and D.C. police (and even Navy SEALs) who show up to defend the White House were wiped out by Yune and company, but the way that Butler dispatches these antagonists with ferocity deservedly elicited cheers from the audience. (Despite being gagged and bound, one Korean commando was foolish enough to laugh at Butler's character as he interrogated the terrorist in one scene; the commando stopped laughing, permanently, after getting the previously-mentioned knife to the throat.) And being a military buff, I like how the filmmakers accurately portrayed the way flares are dispensed from the AC-130 gunship when threatened by missiles fired by the F-22s. Though if only the F-22 saw real combat instead of having to continuously engage in fictional big-screen dogfights as seen in this film, 2008's Iron Man and the Transformers trilogy. Oh well. So would I recommend Olympus Has Fallen for viewing, you ask? Sure. Just make sure you watch it with another flick like this Friday's G.I. Joe: Retaliation to get your 6 bucks worth...if you're going to a matinee at AMC or Regal Cinemas or something. Oh, and here's hoping that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un doesn't obtain any copy of this movie. He might get ideas.

Olympus Has Fallen... How many of you have seen the trailer for this flick? Olympus Has Fallen looks pretty interesting...if you overlook how shoddy the visual effects appeared on the big screen (I saw the preview when I watched A Good Day to Die Hard last weekend; no, I don't intend to review that flick here) and the fact Gerard Butler will apparently channel Jack Bauer (from the now-defunct FOX TV show, 24) in this movie. I wonder if there'll even be a scene or two where Butler utters Bauer's signature line "Damn it!" in this flick. We'll see.

Wreck-It Ralph... I saw the new animated film earlier today, and needless to say, it's another Pixar masterpiece. Wreck-It Ralph combines the awesome action sequences of 2004's The Incredibles with the heartfelt sincerity of 2001's Monsters, Inc. Like Monsters, Inc., this latest movie revolves around a character who—despite making a living out of scaring people and causing havoc—just wants to feel accepted and learns that he has a soft-side to him after befriending a young child. While this may sound like a bad thing in that it makes Wreck-It Ralph look not-so-original, this is actually a plus in a long line of pluses that made this film totally entertaining to watch. There are lots of nice plot twists in Wreck-It Ralph...even though it's a kid's flick and not say, The Usual Suspects.



Wreck-It Ralph has a stellar cast in it—with John C. Reilly lending his voice as the title character Ralph, Sarah Silverman playing the adorable 'glitch' named Vanellope, Jack McBrayer (of NBC's 30 Rock) voicing Fix-It Felix, Jr. (who's supposed to be like Super Mario while Ralph is paying homage to Donkey Kong), Glee's Jane Lynch as the bad-ass Sergeant Calhoun, comedian Adam Carolla as Wynnchel, the always-hilarious Alan Tudyk as King Candy, The Office's Mindy Kaling as Taffyta Muttonfudge, Superbad's Joe Lo Truglio as Markowski, Modern Family's Ed O'Neill as Mr. Litwak and 24's Dennis Haysbert as General Hologram. Clearly, Disney spent lots of money to get such talented actors to lend their voices to this production.



Wreck-It Ralph has lots of familiar video game characters in it...such as Pac-Man, Bowser from Super Mario Bros., various combatants from Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat, Sonic the Hedgehog, the Paperboy from Paperboy and even the high-tech soldiers of Xbox's ultra-popular Halo (though the title was changed to Hero's Duty...most likely due to copyright issues with Microsoft, and the fact the title is making a reference to another mega-hit video game series, Call of Duty). Wreck-It Ralph makes clever use of actual characters (I wonder how much Capcom was paid to allow Ralph to be featured in a Street Fighter II gaming scene where he gets electrocuted by Blanka?)...and found a funny way to integrate these characters into a storyline that, as mentioned in the first paragraph above, has unexpected moments in it. What kind of unexpected moments, you ask? Well— Let's just say that the main villain isn't what you'd expect him to be. There's a reason why it's a bad thing to go 'turbo' in the world of Wreck-It Ralph.



Like The Incredibles, Finding Nemo and WALL-E, I expect Wreck-It Ralph to get a Best Animated Feature Film nomination (and possibly win it) at next year's Academy Awards. I never saw Pixar's summer film Brave because it quite frankly looked unappealing...but I'll be rooting for Pixar to get some nice accolades for this latest cinematic hit. Now if you excuse me, I think I'll go play Streetfighter II on Super Nintendo. No wait— I don't have my SNES anymore. Darn it.

LAST NIGHT WAS A GOOD NIGHT... Jack Bauer returned with a vengeance (even though Tony Almeida technically was the one who was seeking revenge), the Lakers won again [and currently have the best record (30-6) in the NBA. Let's hope they are 32-6 by this Wednesday, after playing against the Houston Rockets on Tuesday and the San Antonio Spurs the day after], and Heath Ledger won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor. It's not an Oscar (yet), but it'll do.

The WGA Strike... I’d be indifferent, if not for the fact the screenplay for Transformers 2 hasn’t been completed yet, and production on the sequel will most likely be delayed. How this affects the film’s June 26, 2009 release date, we shall see. Also, the seventh season of 24 may be delayed because of the walkout as well. Worse-case scenario: Day 7 will be pushed back to 2008-09! In the words of Jack Bauer: Damn it! Curse you Writers Guild of America! And curse those screenwriters’ hides! Just kidding. Anyways, I need to re-register my Hard-Cores II script (which I wrote in 2001) with the Guild as soon as I can. Which would be...now. The screenplay’s first certificate expired in February. No, I didn’t write a porno flick...



Back to Transformers... The DVD sold 8.3 million units in the first week since its October 16 release. If you want to put this in perspective, 300 took 10 weeks to sell 8.3 million copies, and Happy Feet took 6 months to sell 9 million copies. In its second week, Transformers remained No. 1 with 5.1 million units sold and a two-week gross of $117,010,180. In its third week of release, Transformers fell to second place after the Spider-Man 3 DVD made its debut. However, the Michael Bay flick is still No. 1 in HD DVD sales. Thank the Transformers Live Action Movie Blog and Superhero Hype for the details.



UPDATE (February 12, 2008): The writers' strike has finally ended. WOOHOO!

THE MOVIE... About two weeks ago, it was confirmed that 20th Century Fox and 24’s producers reached an agreement to release a big-screen version of the hit TV drama...to be released in theaters around summer of 2008. It’ll be interesting to see how they pull this off without using the unique real-time structure employed on the TV show. I really hope the writers have a totally kick-ass story in mind, since I wouldn’t want this to be another version of Kiefer Sutherland’s previous film, The Sentinel (which I never saw, but from what I read in most reviews, didn’t miss much). I cringe at the thought of 24: The Movie being derided as nothing more than a standard action film, so here’s hoping that there’ll be some clever, unique twists in the plot the same way there are in the TV episodes (though hopefully the plot won’t be 'unique' to the point that it seemed outlandish like the story in 1998's X-Files: The Movie). And also... Let’s see a brief nude scene with Chloe O'Brian. Just kidding! Or are I? (Bad grammar done intentionally.) According to Wikipedia.org, lensing for the movie will begin on May 30th, 2007 (after Season 6 ends), and is expected to be released between Seasons 7 and 8—assuming those seasons come into existence...which I hope they do.

Last Friday, Fox TV began airing 2 rerun episodes of Season 5 from 8 PM to 10 PM. So not only is KCAL Channel 9 (in Los Angeles) airing Season 2 episodes of 24 on Sunday mornings (12 AM) and nights (11 PM), but fans (those living in L.A., at least) also get to stay home all 3 weekend nights to watch Jack Bauer and Co. torture or shoot (mostly both) the bad guys. Sweeet.