24 is lost in time

There’s been lots of weirdness lately relating to 24’s Season 7 and I’ve been lax in blogging about it, so let’s catch up, shall we?

First off: 24 is not going to be “22″ this season. I first hear about this rumor via this Newsday blog, and it’s been debunked, first reported here on TVGuide.com. Did the reporter for Premiere.com not understand Robert Carlyle through his Scottish brogue? Was Carlyle taking something that scrambled his brain? He reportedly told Premiere about November’s Season 7 prequel movie: “This is two hours in real time, and there’ll then be 22 episodes.”

Wrong! Phew. That would have been massively stupid.

Plus, it would have caused the same “real-time” problems initially encountered when they wanted to do part of the actual Season 7 in Africa: It’d take something like 12-16 hours for Jack to fly back to the U.S., detracting somewhat from the intensity of the series’ storytelling.

Carlyle also apparently was wrong, TVGuide says, in saying the prequel’s final moments lead right into the first moments of Season 7. A few months will pass (the prequel starts four years after Season 6’s end, which brings us to …

The year is 2017 and Jack Bauer is now 52 years old. It was first reported in the New York Post, which is owned by the same company as Fox, which produces and airs the show.

To emphasize the passage of time, Jack’s sidekick, Chloe (Mary-Lynn Rajskub), who was revealed to be pregnant in last year’s season finale, will suddenly have a 4-year-old kid to deal with.For those keeping score at home, that means that 17 TV years have passed since Season 1, when Bauer first took on the Eastern European bad guys bent on revenge and destruction – and he was said to be 35 years old.

Kiefer Sutherland himself just turned 41 in jail in December.

Other quick items:

• Zap2it reported that even though Rajskub actually is preggers and they’re shooting, they’ll take care of that by her body behind boxes and she’ll spend a lot of time sitting at the computer (the latter of which isn’t out of character, anyhow). And she’s not in the prequel.

• Jonesing for 24? Check out “Season Two: The Musical” from the creators of “The Silence of the Lambs: The Musical.” Why Season Two? Because, the creators, said, it’s their favorite season. I concur.

• Blogs.4Bauer spells out the top 5 changes he would have brought to Sacramento had he been elected mayor (he was a write-in, but lost to all, including Mickey Mouse). The changes include: “Change the nickname to anything but ‘the river city.’ How does ‘the blood flows like a river city” sound?

• Ladies, stand down. Kiefer Sutherland is not engaged to girlfriend Siobhan Bonnouvrier. Repeat: they are not engaged. (Star magazine apparently reported he had proposed; his rep says it’s not true.)

• He did take her to Cape Town, however, for the filming of the November prequel movie.

Production work on the movie, which is mainly set in Sangala, a fictitious African country, has moved to Los Angeles, where the few last scenes will be shot with veteran actor Jon Voight, Angelina Jolie’s father, who plays the terrorist mastermind.

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“We’re excited about the prequel; it explores Jack’s complex emotional state and still has the suspense that fans have come to expect from 24,” said executive producer Howard Gordon.

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(Actor Hakeem) Kae-Kazim — who moved with his family from the Bo- Kaap in Cape Town to Los Angeles a year ago — portrays … cruel (rebel) leader, Ike Dubaku.

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Cassar said: “The sixth season of 24 ends with Jack’s life in tatters. Both his personal life and his career are basically over. So, in the movie, Jack travels from country to country searching for answers … and unfortunately gets caught up in a civil war.”

Original here