24’ Franchise Eyes Comeback At Fox With Female-Led Legal Thriller Drama (tr)

Deadline ^ | November 1, 2017 | Nellie Andreeva

[EdnaMode]

Fox is developing a potential new incarnation of its Emmy-winning drama series that would have a female lead and take the real-time format of the terrorism-themed original and apply it to a different arena, criminal justice.

The project, which has received a script commitment, hails from 24 franchise executive producers Howard Gordon and Imagine’s Brian Grazer, as well as former The Killing writer-producer Jeremy Doner and the franchise’s production companies, 20th Century Fox TV and Imagine TV. Doner will write the script with Gordon, who ran the original series.

Details about the premise are sketchy, but I hear that the potential new 24 series centers on a female prosecutor who uncovers a legal conspiracy and has to work against the clock to save a death row inmate facing imminent execution whom she had helped prosecute but may be innocent. I hear this is part of an anthological take on 24 that would tackle a new world with new characters each season.

The idea is in line with the plans for the 24 franchise outlined by Fox bosses during the summer TCA in August.

”We are really exploring what the future, the next version of 24 might be, maybe in more anthological storytelling,” Fox chairman Dana Walden said then, with sources at the time indicating the network may develop multiple ideas before deciding which one to proceed with. I hear that still may be the case.

“The same kind of ticking-clock format but apply it to something else,” then-Fox Entertainment president David Madden said at TCA. “It will have the same urgency but may not be set in the CTU, it will have same style and urgency but in a different venue.”

Imagine has been spearheading the efforts to reimagine the 24 franchise after the end of 24: Legacy. I hear the company brought Doner onto the project and introduced him to Gordon.

This would make the latest reinvention of 24. Four years after the acclaimed original series, created by Joel Surnow and Robert Cochran, ended its eight-season run on Fox, the network aired follow-up event series 24: Live Another Day, featuring the same lead character, CTU agent Jack Bauer, fighting terrorism threats. Fox, Gordon and Imagine then teamed for 24: Legacy, a new installment in the franchise that again was set at CTU but revolved around a new cast of characters, led by Corey Hawkings.

At Fox, Imagine TV also has flagship drama series Empire and new soapy family drama project Filthy Rich, from The Help writer-director Tate Taylor, which has a put pilot commitment. Imagine and Doner are repped by CAA, with Doner also repped by attorneys Carlos Goodman and Greg Slewett.

Gordon has two put pilot commitments at Fox. One is Classified, an hourlong drama with Marc Guggenheim, and the other is Nightfall, with Sheldon Turner and Jennifer Klein. He also has a medical drama written by Jason Horwitch, and drama Headshot executive produced by Sanaa Hamri, both with script commitment plus penalty. He is repped by WME and Gendler Kelly.

[EdnaMode]

Same here. I’m also tired of the ticking clock, 24 hour format.

[EdnaMode]

Totally agree! Although I would prefer they drop the 24 hour ticking clock format.

[2001convSVT]

Excellent, LOL!

[2001convSVT]

And with Marvel Comic books Too. S/.

What ever happen to the old adage “you dance with the one who brought you”.

[SoCal Pubbie]

Which dyke on Gotham are you referring to?

[2CAVTrooper]

There is already something like that... Called “First 48”.

[2CAVTrooper]

Sorry, we had that in the White House from January 2009 to January 2017

[2CAVTrooper]

Fish Mooney?

[Magnatron]

Oh, I can’t wait to see some extremely hot 95-pound woman kick the ass of five biker dudes, who happen to be white supremacist terrorists working secretly for Vladimir Putin, while also knowing how to fly F-22s, handle shoulder-fired rockets, and save a room full of black and hispanic hostages, all while wearing yoga pants.

[SoCal Pubbie]

Was she really shown to be a dyke? I seem to remember her as kind of asexual. Gordon’s original squeeze turned lesbo if memory serves.

[j.havenfarm]

Ditto. I watched religiously through the jack Bauer years. Enjoyed it tremendously, but I thought the clock/ 24 hour concept was silly. Plus I always thought about what the characters’ breath would be like after a straight 24 hours on the job!

[Pearls Before Swine]

Sorry, we had that in the White House from January 2009 to January 2017

... and there was quite an audience for it.

[Sergio]

My nit to pick with 24 is that the CTU had intel so extraordinary that they knew when a person of interest was sneezing.

So how come they couldn’t use some of that intel to better screen their new hires. It seems that every season they had a mole in CTU.

I don’t know, how about instituting a new hiring process developed by a new HR department.

[EdnaMode]

Yeah they didn’t even use the format that affectively. The characters never looked tired, and Jack could get across LA in minutes. They’d be better off trying something new without the real time format.

[EdnaMode]

Annie Wersching, who played Renee Walker in seasons 7-8 weighs in....

@Wersching
Uhhhhhhh.....

LOL. Guess she’s not happy that they waited this long to do it when they could have had a series starring her character.

[CaptainPhilFan]

...”woman who can do a spin kick and knock out guys taller, stronger and who have 100 pounds on her”.... in heels and an evening gown, too (the chick, not the tall guy).

YET! Get an attractive, young, sexy, female, enemy agent in the room with our super girl and it takes 12 minutes to defeat the baddie.

(Of course carefully trained broads are easily able to take out linebackers but because of their superior skills it takes SOOO long to fight each other).

And then the men of the show enter room with guns drawn, expecting the worst, but everyone grins and hi-fives.

[silent_jonny]

They're officially beating a dead horse now.

The female lead (because they've tried white and black) will be focus group approved: A Gal Gadot clone. Strong, but still feminine. Absolutely no sense of humor--about anything. Her name will be Kate, Katherine, Carrie, Emma or Elizabeth. Or they could get really creative and give her a man's name.

And a man's haircut.

She will be the only character on the show that will believe the condemned man is innocent and will stop at nothing to prove it!

Her male superiors (sitting comfortably above the glass ceiling) will think she's crazy until the very last episode when they realize, by gosh, that little lady was right!

And of course, the condemned man will be a misunderstood Muslim, like our Uzbek friend in NYC, who will either go free or (plot twist!) will die tragically while trying to save one of his white accusers: a loud mouth Make America Great Again deplorable, who will realize the error of his islamophobic, xenophobic ways.

"Ya know ... I was wrong about that thar Muslim!"

[EdnaMode]

Great post. That’s probably exactly what will happen.

[Political Junkie Too]

Here is my idea for a new 24 series that I posted back in August.

---

What they really should do is mimic the old NBC Mystery Movie concept, where they rotated between McCloud, Columbo, and McMillan and Wife and something else. This gave each show a month to produce an episode, which allowed for greater quality.

They could rotate between different CTU locations, each with its own cast. Each weekly story would center on a different CTU (and cast), and each would face some terrorist crisis which would play out over the course of a week (within the 2-hour nightly movie time limit).

Prominent guest stars would be featured each week, either as the target or the baddie. Each CTU might have a different story focus. For example, the Washington DC CTU could focus on threats to the President, Congress, and SCOTUS. A New York City CTU could focus on financial cybercrimes, and Boston-NYC-Chicago threats. An LA CTU would focus on AsiaPac terror. A heartland CTU could focus on homeland and/or international intrigue stories. Or maybe make one a British CTU to focus on European stories.

---

Instead of each episode being one hour of a 24 episode drawn out story, make each episode a self-contained story that occurs within the week, and rotate the shows each week. This way, we'd return to the first team after one month for a fresh story.

-PJ

[bray]

24 BLM was unwatchable, this one will surpass it.