If you give most people eight days, they'd spend most of it watching Jeremy Kyle in bed, making Super Noodle sandwiches and listlessly scratching their genitals while they think of stuff to do. Not Kiefer Sutherland, though.
Because Kiefer Sutherland likes to keep busy. As Jack Bauer in 24, Kiefer Sutherland fills his days doing things like saving the world from nuclear catastrophe, stealing his daughter from the clutches of wolves and shooting Dennis Hopper in the chest several times. And the good news is that all this ludicrous 24 buffoonery is set to continue – Kiefer Sutherland has signed on for three more seasons of 24, bring the total of shitty days for Jack Bauer up to eight.
It's good that Kiefer Sutherland (CDs) knows a good thing when he sees it. No, we take that back – we've seen The Last Days Of Frankie The Fly, after all. We mean that it's good that when Kiefer Sutherland gets lucky by starring in a popular TV show, he rides the money train for all it's worth. And, by signing for three more seasons of 24, that's exactly what he's done.
Because, for a while there, we were a little worried about the future of 24. Kiefer Sutherland wants Jack Bauer to die, they said; or Kiefer Sutherland wants to bugger everything up by making a non-realtime movie of 24. But now, with the announcement that 24 will be invading our screens for at least another three years, everybody can rest easy – it'll be 'tick tock vroom vroom screech bang' time as normal for Jack Bauer, giving 24 viewers exactly what they want: the chance to slowly get bored of 24 and stop watching it when they choose to.
And Kiefer Sutherland seems pleased by the 24 extension. Not least because Fox is reportedly handing him $40 million in cold hard cash to reprise his role. That'll make Kiefer Sutherland the highest-paid actor in drama series, plus he's getting a promotion from co-executive producer of 24 to executive producer. Seeing as how he'll still be executive producing 24 with four other people, we're not exactly sure what that means. But at least it'll keep him happy. Kiefer Sutherland has called the time he's spent on the first five seasons of 24:
"one of the most creative and rewarding experiences in my career."
Which we're taking to mean "$40 million to blow loads of shit up and look a bit angry all the time? Are you kidding me? And I'm famous again! I hadn't been famous since 1990! Hooray for 24 and hooray for me!"
Still, $40 million. That's enough money to keep him in heroin for a long, long time. Jack Bauer, that is. Not Kiefer Sutherland.
Read more:
Sutherland pacts for three more years of 24 – Reuters
[story by Stuart Heritage]