By Gary Levin, USA TODAY
Jack Bauer fans jonesing for a 24 fix can restart the clock: All 192 episodes of Fox's groundbreaking thriller are due Tuesday in a complete 56-disc box set (20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, $349.98).
Included are extras such as a final unaired coda for the series, in which Chloe O'Brian (Mary Lynn Rajskub) is arrested for once again freeing beleaguered counterterrorism agent Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland), as her 6-year-old son watches; 24: Redemption, the two-hour Season 7 prequel, filmed in Africa; a recent Comic-Con panel; a wrap-party highlight reel; and the usual cast-and-crew interviews interspersed with highlights of the series.
"Nostalgically, the first season will always feel special to me. We were really flying by the seat of our pants," says Sutherland, who spent 10 years and eight seasons in his first
TV series.
"And I have a real affection for Season 8" and its depiction of a battered Jack's relationship with agent Renee Walker (Annie Wersching), which he calls "one of the most grounded story lines ... and, as an actor, one of the most satisfying to play." But "watching clips from Season 1 to 8, all I see is, 'Man, we got old!' "
The show's real-time conceit, each season representing a single day, was both radical and daunting. "Trying to do something in the thriller genre for eight years, trying to do a story that's suspenseful and earnest, is an unbelievable challenge," he says.
As it was for three winners of a Hollywood promotional stunt last weekend, who stayed awake long enough to set a Guinness world record for TV marathon viewing, watching more than 86 consecutive hours — the first five seasons — of the series, and claiming $10,000 prizes.
Though the series has ended, a feature film is still in development at Fox, and Tony Scott (Unstoppable) has been in discussions to direct. Sutherland is hopeful the movie will be released in 2012, though Fox has not yet committed to the project.
In the meantime, he's due in sci-fi film Melancholia next year and is prepping his Broadway debut in That Championship Season, by Jason Miller, due next month. Sutherland says talks for the revival of the 1972 play came out of a conversation with pal Jason Patric, Miller's son, with whom Sutherland shared a movie (The Lost Boys) and an ex-girlfriend (Julia Roberts).
"It's four middle-aged men living off their high school success, which is really sad and funny at the same time," he says.
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