72 More Hours for Jack Bauer

Source: Comingsoon.net

24 star Kiefer Sutherland has signed a deal to stay with the Fox show for three more years, through May 2009, reports Variety.

As part of the pact, Sutherland will establish a production company on the 20th Century Fox lot to produce series programming for both broadcast and cable networks.

The deal makes Sutherland one of the highest-paid drama actors on television.

Sutherland, currently co-executive producer on 24, will be bumped up to executive producer for the upcoming sixth and seven seasons of the show. He shares that title with creators Joel Surnow and Robert Cochran, as well as Howard Gordon and Evan Katz.

Finally, while the deal with Fox is for TV only, Sutherland said he and the show's producers continue to believe in the idea of bringing the 24 franchise to the big screen. The earliest the movie would begin shooting, however, is late spring 2007, Sutherland said.

Quality control is the chief reason a 24 feature couldn't shoot during the upcoming hiatus, Sutherland added.

"It was really Joel and Bob and Howard realizing that if we were going to squeeze it in during the break, we would have been rushing it," he said. "If we were going to do it, we would do it next summer. It's still a big 'if.' We would not go forward unless we thought we could do it right.

"The film likely would depart from the series by condensing an entire day into about two hours, rather than unfolding in real time.

Sutherland isn't shooting a feature this hiatus in anticipation of working on a 24 film next summer.