@Guaro,
You're not the only one bitter about last seasons ending. Mr. Sutherland was too.
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By BILL BRIOUX -- Toronto Sun
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. -- There'll be no more cliffhanger finales on 24 if Kiefer Sutherland has his way.
The Emmy-nominated actor told a scrum of reporters at the Fox press tour last week that he strongly disagrees with how this past season of the real-time series ended.
"We have an audience committed to watch a full day," he said. "That day should have a conclusion."
Last May's Season Two finale ended with badly injured agent Jack Bauer (Sutherland) somehow beating the daylights out of a group of terrorists but unable to stop an assassination attempt on U.S. president David Palmer (played by Dennis Haysbert). Did Palmer die at the end? We'll have to wait until the show returns Oct. 28 to find out for sure,but Haysbert was also at the Fox party, larger than life and admitting to being back "in some capacity."
A few other juicy details have surfaced, but, as Sutherland says, people don't really want to know. He's been stopped on the street by people pleading for him to spill the beans. As soon as he opens his mouth to tell them he can't, they shout, "No, don't! Don't!"
The new season will take place two years later, with the countdown clock set to start at 1 p.m. Bauer will be teamed with a new partner. Production began last week on Season Three, and based on the scripts he's seen so far, it looks "very strong. We're nervous about it, and that's good," he says. "The pressure is on to top last season."
Sutherland prefers the way the first season ended, on a final, if deadly note. Bauer's wife Teri (Canadian actress Leslie Hope) died in the shocking final minutes. Some people were upset, but at least audiences weren't left hanging for six months, he says. "If you're going to ride this 24-hour thing with us we're going to give you an answer at the end," is how he'd like to see it.
And he has some say. Sutherland is an executive producer as well as the star. Not that anybody's job is 100% safe on this series. "There's not a single actor that can get all that comfortable on our show," he says. "We get removed rather quickly."
Cigarette tucked behind his right ear, Sutherland was backed up against a wall by a crush of critics eager to get the scoop on Season Three. He was just back from Montreal where he took a small part opposite Angelina Jolie and Ethan Hawke in Taking Lives.
The cool Canadian news is that Wendy Crewson, who just shot a cable movie in Calgary with Tom Selleck, is about to join 24. This would make the sixth Canadian on the series (Elisha Cuthbert, as daughter Kim, is the other regular), making the True North a real real-time resource.
"I'm the real-time guy," he joked, noting that his last film, Phone Booth (he was the menacing voice on the other end of the line) also played out in real time.
As for rumours of a 24 feature, Sutherland says nobody has talked to him about it. "I think it could be amazingly cool," he said and even has a title: 1:47.
And here's a few bits on the upcomming season:
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LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - As it did last season, FOX will air the season premiere of its thriller "24" commercial-free.
The series, returning for its third season, is scheduled to debut at 9 p.m. ET Tuesday, Oct. 28, the network announced Thursday (July 17) at the TV Critics Association press tour. Ford is sponsoring the debut -- as was the case last fall -- and will air an extended ad piece at the beginning and end of the episode.
The network is planning a big promotional push for the Emmy-nominated series. A four-minute trailer for the coming season will air during FOX's showing of the movie "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" on Sunday, Sept. 7. A version of the teaser will also air in movie theaters in October.
Gail Berman, president of FOX Entertainment, also dropped a few hints about what viewers can expect in Season 3 of "24." She wouldn't reveal the crisis that drives the plot, but she did offer some details about the status of people affected in the cliffhanger finale of Season 2.
As previously reported, the show will jump three years into the future. Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland), who's back working at the government's Counter-Terrorism Unit, will have a partner. Bauer's daughter Kim (Elisha Cuthbert) is also working at CTU.
Dennis Haysbert will be back, which would appear to mean that President Palmer survived the biological attack that felled him in last season's finale. The timeline of the show would put Palmer in the middle of a re-election campaign, something Berman says is probably a safe bet.