[Locke.]

EXCLUSIVE: I’m hearing that fans of the Fox series 24 are going to have to continue waiting for the long awaited 24 feature film. 20th Century Fox isn’t going forward with the film this year. It hadn’t been green lit, but it was scheduled to get going in late March, with Kiefer Sutherland jumping into Jack Bauer mode when his new series Touch goes on hiatus in April. The studio was zeroing in on a director–Antoine Fuqua was the most recent conversation I’d heard of–when the decision was made this week to not go forward, at least this year.

There are rumors this came down to budget and that Sutherland is upset because he was sparked up to resume his role as the rough and tumble government operative, who over eight seasons prevented numerous apocalyptic terror attacks. Studio insiders tell me that Fox wasn’t convinced it had enough time to complete the film before Sutherland has to go back to work on Touch‘s second season, and didn’t want to rush and neither did Sutherland. The picture is being produced by Imagine Entertainment’s Brian Grazer and Sutherland and they have a script written by Billy Ray, and polished by Mark Bomback. It’s ready to go.

The big question is whether Fox will continue working on the film and readying it for Sutherland’s next hiatus. Having been a big fan of the series, I am disappointed. I’ve heard that Ray constructed the script to play out in a three-picture arc. Maybe it was the real-time format, or perhaps the writing and endless cliffhangers, but the twists and turns and intensity created a blood pressure-spiking viewer experience that was unmatched-at least until AMC unveiled The Walking Dead. It seems a natural transition to features, with the potential to turn into a Die Hard-type action franchise.

Giving the picture some hope is Grazer’s inability to take no for an answer. American Gangster was scrapped and then came back together and turned into a memorable crime drama. And Grazer, Ron Howard, Akiva Goldsman and Stephen King are now firming up a deal for The Dark Tower at Warner Bros, which will put the picture on course to begin production in the first quarter of 2013 after Universal last year rejected the ambitious plan to make three movies and two limited run TV series that could land at HBO.

http://www.deadline.com/2012/03/has-...g-on-24-movie/

Bad news but expected The actual film sounds promising though. Good Director, the guy behind Training Day, Shooter and King Arthur. Written by the guy who has wrote The Hunger Games movie (lol), and another who wrote Die Hard 4.