. My hope was always that the final scene would be Jack sacrificing his life for the country he's fought for over the last eight years, with the silent ticking clock(known as the "Death Clock") counting down for him. That wasn't meant to be, and Fox pushed ahead with plans for a 24 movie anyway. But at least they wise enough to hire Billy Ray to pen the script. Ray has done some phenomenal stuff lately, including Shattered Glass 
and the slick FBI thriller, Breach
. A perfect fit, in my opinion.Well take all that good will I had towards this thing and flush it, because producer Howard Gordon has revealed that not only is Billy Ray no longer involved with the film in any way, but that Tony Scott is makin' moves to replace him. Uh oh. He says about Ray's script...
"It wasn’t strong enough or compelling enough to the studio obviously to move ahead with it.”
”The movie is something that right now I’m not engaged or involved in. The rumors are that [director] Tony Scott has an idea that he is going to run it by or has run it by Kiefer Sutherland. I don’t know what the status of it is.”
This is no good. Sure these are just rumors right now but if true then my interest in 24 just took a massive nosedive. I liked Tony Scott's kinetic style at one point, but now all of his movies look and feel exactly the same. It might actually work for 24, but I'm betting Billy Ray's version would've been just as intense in a completely different way.
You can read more of what Howard Gordon had to say to AssignmentX by clicking here.
