WWW- Good news for 24 fans: Jack Bauer is in for at least three more days of hell.
Kiefer Sutherland has inked a $40 million deal to remain on the pulse-quickening drama for another three seasons, according to trade reports Monday, ensuring CTU’s main man will be fighting terrorists through 2009.
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.
“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 tells the Hollywood Reporter. “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.
“The writers keep managing to turn the show in on itself, coming up with something that’s well thought-out and miraculous,” Sutherland tells Variety.
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 has an] 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,” Dana Walden, president of 20th Century Fox, tells Variety.
The new deal promises to keep the already-busy actor even busier.
Aside from an elongated TV run for 24, currently in its highest rated and most critically acclaimed year yet, Sutherland and 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 said. “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.
In the meantime, Sutherland will be making the rounds in the multiplex. 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.