Fox halts ’24′ movie over disputes with Keifer Sutherland’s salary and schedule

A movie adaptation of the excellent and superhit Fox TV show ’24′ has been publicly in the works for quite some time after the show ended its eight season run in 2010. A few scripts were written and star Keifer Sutherland continually said that it was being made. Recently, we got the update that the film is being planned to go into production at the end of this month to co-incide with Sutherland’s hiatus with his new (also excellent) TV show ‘Touch’. Now, Fox has put the brakes on the project for a few reasons.

Deadline reports on the news and one of the key reasons why this isn’t happening is because of conflicts between the studio and Sutherland over budgets and salaries. Apparently, Fox doesn’t want to budget the movie over $30 million but the filmmakers want something around $45 million to $60 million for the film. Considering a ‘Chipmunks’ movie can cost more than $60 million, I hardly believe that the money is unfair for a globe-trotting action movie.

The other issue is apparently what Fox decided to offer Keifer Sutherland as his salary to star – a measly $1 million. It has possibly made the star furious who wants something around the lines of $5 million. Which again isn’t unfair, considering he’s the main star of the show for eight years and will headline the movie. Without him, there is no film.

But the main reason for the film to not happen is that Fox believes that the time they’re given with the hiatus between the production of ‘Touch’ isn’t enough to shoot the film and prep all these things into. The film doesn’t even have a confirmed director at this point, so it makes sense why Fox has put the movie up for a 2013 production instead. While I’m against them on their issues mentioned above and totally think that they’re cheapening the film unfairly, a rushed job would hurt the film and I rather see a good ’24′ movie late than a crappy one early.

So, no ’24′ movie for now. But Jack Bauer will rise again. He always has.