24: Executive producer Howard GordonWe get a preview of the series finale and news of the 24 movie.
BY FRED TOPEL
MAY 10, 2010
It might not be as traumatic to watch 24 end as it will be for Lost. At least we know there could be a 24 movie coming. Still, by the end of 192 hours (194 counting 24: Redemption), we’ll no longer be speculating on how Jack Bauer gets across town so fast, or how Kim will escape the mountain lion. Executive producer Howard Gordon gave a conference call with the media to preview the series finale (appropriately airing May 24) and possible movie version of 24. Warning, his final answer is a bit of a spoiler, but really not one you didn’t already expect.
Q: People are still so upset about Renee’s death. Was there any other twist you’d pondered?
Howard Gordon: You know, actually typically we come upon these things as more improvisations but this was one that we had come up with at the very beginning of the season and stuck with and for reasons everybody has seen right now, which is obviously motivating Jack to this final climactic confrontation and taking him to a place he’s never been before. Unfortunately, I have to say I think people’s outrage I’m taking anyway as a measure of interest. Their indifference would have been far more hurtful than outrage. We have a history of doing that I remember when we did that with Edgar we got a fair amount of angry e-mail. This is something we thought about and thought about very carefully and hopefully did it well, I hope.
Q: When you found out that this would indeed be the final season, were you able to add any finality to the last hour?
Howard Gordon: You know, it’s a good question and it was one that the network asked as well. To me the show was going to end the way it was going to end, whether there was a ninth season or whether there was a movie. I think what changed is the context of it all. It really took on a different meaning. I think any number of seasons in years past, season four, season five, even last year I think could have been a really cool series finale. Only the fact that this was our series finale did I think have the context of wow, we’re really saying goodbye to this character. There is a final, final moment that is very specific to the series finale. Not so much a plot moment, it’s a punctuation that I think is unique to the series finale. The answer is no, we told the story the way it was going to be told.
Q: So where have you finally decided to leave Jack?
Howard Gordon: It’s a great question. Where we wanted to leave Jack was something we tried on a couple of very different endings on for size. The one we came to is the one that felt just right. It was not for lack of trying a couple different ways but we knew it when we saw it that this was the right way. One way we tried and didn’t work was a happily ever after for Jack. What he’s done, particularly in these last, forget about the past 8 seasons, what he’ll have done which you haven’t even seen yet again leaves him in a very compromised place morally, ethically and emotionally.
Q: We’ve seen Jack go dark before though.
Howard Gordon: It’s true although I’m trying to think if he’s ever been quite like this. Yeah, it’s a color we’ve seen before but this time we’re really pressing our bet. You see the next couple episodes, we’re all in.
Q: Can he ever come back from this, especially if you’re looking at doing a movie?
Howard Gordon: That was really the question we asked ourselves and the studio asked us. The answer is no. Jack’s never been able to snap back. Even when he’s happy, in season four when we introduced Audrey, it wasn’t like that discounted all the tragedy. This year, Jack allowed himself a moment of joy or human contact with his daughter, her husband and his granddaughter. It doesn’t discount the tragedy??? I don't think Jack is every going to recover from what’s gone on. It just adds to the weight and complexity and the darkness of his character. The character’s never gone happily ever after. That’s not in his wheelhouse. The show is ultimately a tragedy and you have to honor that.
Q: There was some talk of moving the show to NBC. Where really anything to that rumor?
Howard Gordon: You know, it wasn’t something I wanted to do. It was something I was willing to entertain as a loyal Fox employee and help Fox find new personnel to run the show, maybe even recruit some of the guys who have been with me. It was something I think we all felt, when we really looked at each other and Kiefer included, was we were really telling our final season. We kind of knew in the beginning of the year and kind of kept the door open. Fox may have had different conversations, didn’t share entirely the concerns we had that we really reached the creative end to the story and wanted to end as close to the top as we could. We did have conversations but when we really sat down and considered it, it was just something that never caught fire.
Q: You know, a lot of the fans hated the Dana Walsh character. How do you react to that?
Howard Gordon: Yeah, man, every season there’s something that people seem to fixate on. I got it. I guess all I kept telling people was to please wait until the story had been told before you commented. To me, I think episode 20 answered that question. I was really proud of that episode. What I liked too was for this admittedly complex and labyrinthine and confused, crazy character, this onion of a character got peeled down to the nub. You finally understand a little bit who she really is. Of course she’s a sociopath and it’s kind of an insane story, but to see in that moment that she really cared about Cole, that she really had done this to get her out of a situation she’d gotten into. Look, it’s crazy. There’s a girl from Rock Springs manages to get into CTU as an analyst under an alias. It’s crazy and the fact that it was the Russians had sponsored her and put her in there made it make some sense. It was a pretty wild roller coaster of a character that Katee pulled off beautifully. What I liked about it is what felt unnatural or weird was that very part, that she wasn’t authentic, that she was this counterfeit personality in the midst of our heroes. I’m happy with the way it resolved. I really haven’t gone online and really seen how people reacted, if they’re even more pissed off but in the end, she acquitted herself pretty well.
Q: Will anyone find the parole officer, Steven Root’s body?
Howard Gordon: They will, in the 25th hour. We actually had written a couple of discoveries and it just messed up our storytelling. I put it in the Behrooz file, things we speculate happened after the 24 hours. The body doesn’t start smelling until after the 25th hour. According to my forensics manual the stench doesn’t begin until hour six.
Q: What was it about Katee Sackhoff or her body of work that made you want to cast her?
Howard Gordon: All the writers were just fans of her from Battlestar. We just met her and liked her as a person. We knew this was a character with a past and this was a really interesting actor. In all honesty, we weren’t sure where the character was going to go. We just proceeded in good faith that we’d find something. It was a challenging part and Katee was game for everything we threw at her. Particularly in episode 20 I think that was her greatest moment. I think that was some phenomenal and nuanced performance that she gave.
Q: Even without the real time concept, will the movie a continuation of the series?
Howard Gordon: I’ve talked about this with Kiefer and with Billy Ray. We’re trying to get in sync with what we believe is requirement. There are two sets of requirements: Honoring the series and creative integrity of the character, and also potentially bringing in new people who can go back and watch and believe it’s been consistent. I think we recognize that we’re serving two masters or two audiences, not that they’re mutually exclusive but that there are two different requirements. That’s an ongoing question. What I really think is important that we do is not retread on [what we’ve already done,] make sure that like every season, that we’re moving forward with this character, that he’s in a place where we begin that’s a different place than he’s been before. We all realize we need to define that space. That’s what we’re figuring out.
Q: Without the hook of the real time, what can you do in a movie that you couldn’t on the series?
Howard Gordon: Well, in terms of the real time part of it, really the epiphany even to do the movie is really Jack is just a great character and take the real time conceit out of the equation for now, which I think is a huge part of the show I understand but I think Jack as a character has sufficiently broad shoulders to carry a movie in this genre. The contract we bought with our audience was “not good, never boring.” We really required a lot of latitude from our fans. I think our side of the contract was the keep it interesting and exciting. Even when some of these moments felt preposterous or strange, it always was interesting. Even if you wanted to yell at the TV, as long as they were yelling, we were happy.
Q: Are you happy that the ticking clock will be the show’s legacy?
Howard Gordon: Well, I think you’re right. One of the legacies of the show and perhaps the most important one is the revolutionary concept, but I think the legacy of the show, again having been here from the beginning, is the fact that we never let go of the reigns and never truly let down our guard. I’m proud of the effort everybody put into the show. The audience stayed with us by and large and I think that’s a measure of we kept the story interesting to us. Consequently it was interesting to write it. It’s not an impact but we certainly have had an interesting dance with the culture and society and the world after 9/11 so I think we were very much a part of the first decade of this century. We played a roll in it somehow. I think that legacy is a good one but hopefully we put on a good TV show that people will continue to watch on DVD and in reruns.
Q: Does ending the show indicate we’re in a different place than we were in 2001?
Howard Gordon: You know, the answer to me is really no. The show is eight years old, or actually nine years old and eight seasons and a movie. Everything has a beginning middle and end. That might’ve been the case back in season six. When it seemed that all these negative associations with the White House and torture policies and a bunch of other policies, were unfair negative associations that this show was of a certain time. I think season seven successfully rebooted the show and answered some of those criticisms, and leveled the playing field again so we could tell a good story. It’s not a measure at all frankly. I think the appetite would have kept us going if there had been a story to tell. I think Jack Bauer has a story, a beginning, middle and end and we’ve come to it.
Q: What kind of resolution can we expect between Jack and Chloe now that they’re opposing each other?
Howard Gordon: Well, we took three character, Jack, Taylor and Chloe and we really switched things around. We had this moment in episode 18 and 19, these moments that were very difficult to write and they really fought back, but there is a resolution. They’re all well earned. We tried to create situations that credibly justified these change-ups in their characters so we could understand what obviously was a complex situations with moving parts. It was difficult. Mary Lynn felt this too but to me it’s honoring this character, who isn’t the same character she was all those years back when she was this very idiosyncratic analyst at CTU. She’s a woman, she’s an adult, she’s a mother, she’s a wife and she’s now a boss. And a boss who’s posed to this old and good friend to whom she’s loyal and who she cares about but she also has a job to do. This guy has lost someone and perhaps lost some part of himself in the process which is potentially dangerous, not only to Chloe’s job but to the right thing. So I think it’s pretty well justified and we do have enough time to resolve it and I think it’s resolved pretty well.
Q: What has been the most creative fulfilling part of 24?
Howard Gordon: Getting to work with such talented people is a privilege that you’d have to have been doing it for long enough and be of a certain age to really appreciate it. Starting with my colleagues, my fellow writers who are just brilliant, I got to work with some of the best writers and producers in the business. The entire crew, but because of the culture we created, everyone was a stakeholder in the show. Whether hair or makeup or props and our editors, our editors are some of the best storytellers I’ve ever met. Not that it was a democracy but it was a creative effort and a team. Getting to work with people who I’ll never get a chance to work with this many talented people again was an amazing privilege. It was just a great nine years.
Q: Have you kept anything from the set?
Howard Gordon: I have. It’s so funny, the prop guy actually gave me something. What he gave me, I think I’m spoiling it but it’s a prop that hasn’t been on yet. It’s a pen, a special pen. That’ll come up and I have that on my desk now, a pen used for the signing of the peace treaty.
Q: People are still so upset about Renee’s death. Was there any other twist you’d pondered?
Howard Gordon: You know, actually typically we come upon these things as more improvisations but this was one that we had come up with at the very beginning of the season and stuck with and for reasons everybody has seen right now, which is obviously motivating Jack to this final climactic confrontation and taking him to a place he’s never been before. Unfortunately, I have to say I think people’s outrage I’m taking anyway as a measure of interest. Their indifference would have been far more hurtful than outrage. We have a history of doing that I remember when we did that with Edgar we got a fair amount of angry e-mail. This is something we thought about and thought about very carefully and hopefully did it well, I hope.
Q: When you found out that this would indeed be the final season, were you able to add any finality to the last hour?
Howard Gordon: You know, it’s a good question and it was one that the network asked as well. To me the show was going to end the way it was going to end, whether there was a ninth season or whether there was a movie. I think what changed is the context of it all. It really took on a different meaning. I think any number of seasons in years past, season four, season five, even last year I think could have been a really cool series finale. Only the fact that this was our series finale did I think have the context of wow, we’re really saying goodbye to this character. There is a final, final moment that is very specific to the series finale. Not so much a plot moment, it’s a punctuation that I think is unique to the series finale. The answer is no, we told the story the way it was going to be told.
Q: So where have you finally decided to leave Jack?
Howard Gordon: It’s a great question. Where we wanted to leave Jack was something we tried on a couple of very different endings on for size. The one we came to is the one that felt just right. It was not for lack of trying a couple different ways but we knew it when we saw it that this was the right way. One way we tried and didn’t work was a happily ever after for Jack. What he’s done, particularly in these last, forget about the past 8 seasons, what he’ll have done which you haven’t even seen yet again leaves him in a very compromised place morally, ethically and emotionally.
Q: We’ve seen Jack go dark before though.
Howard Gordon: It’s true although I’m trying to think if he’s ever been quite like this. Yeah, it’s a color we’ve seen before but this time we’re really pressing our bet. You see the next couple episodes, we’re all in.
Q: Can he ever come back from this, especially if you’re looking at doing a movie?
Howard Gordon: That was really the question we asked ourselves and the studio asked us. The answer is no. Jack’s never been able to snap back. Even when he’s happy, in season four when we introduced Audrey, it wasn’t like that discounted all the tragedy. This year, Jack allowed himself a moment of joy or human contact with his daughter, her husband and his granddaughter. It doesn’t discount the tragedy??? I don't think Jack is every going to recover from what’s gone on. It just adds to the weight and complexity and the darkness of his character. The character’s never gone happily ever after. That’s not in his wheelhouse. The show is ultimately a tragedy and you have to honor that.
Q: There was some talk of moving the show to NBC. Where really anything to that rumor?
Howard Gordon: You know, it wasn’t something I wanted to do. It was something I was willing to entertain as a loyal Fox employee and help Fox find new personnel to run the show, maybe even recruit some of the guys who have been with me. It was something I think we all felt, when we really looked at each other and Kiefer included, was we were really telling our final season. We kind of knew in the beginning of the year and kind of kept the door open. Fox may have had different conversations, didn’t share entirely the concerns we had that we really reached the creative end to the story and wanted to end as close to the top as we could. We did have conversations but when we really sat down and considered it, it was just something that never caught fire.
Q: You know, a lot of the fans hated the Dana Walsh character. How do you react to that?
Howard Gordon: Yeah, man, every season there’s something that people seem to fixate on. I got it. I guess all I kept telling people was to please wait until the story had been told before you commented. To me, I think episode 20 answered that question. I was really proud of that episode. What I liked too was for this admittedly complex and labyrinthine and confused, crazy character, this onion of a character got peeled down to the nub. You finally understand a little bit who she really is. Of course she’s a sociopath and it’s kind of an insane story, but to see in that moment that she really cared about Cole, that she really had done this to get her out of a situation she’d gotten into. Look, it’s crazy. There’s a girl from Rock Springs manages to get into CTU as an analyst under an alias. It’s crazy and the fact that it was the Russians had sponsored her and put her in there made it make some sense. It was a pretty wild roller coaster of a character that Katee pulled off beautifully. What I liked about it is what felt unnatural or weird was that very part, that she wasn’t authentic, that she was this counterfeit personality in the midst of our heroes. I’m happy with the way it resolved. I really haven’t gone online and really seen how people reacted, if they’re even more pissed off but in the end, she acquitted herself pretty well.
Q: Will anyone find the parole officer, Steven Root’s body?
Howard Gordon: They will, in the 25th hour. We actually had written a couple of discoveries and it just messed up our storytelling. I put it in the Behrooz file, things we speculate happened after the 24 hours. The body doesn’t start smelling until after the 25th hour. According to my forensics manual the stench doesn’t begin until hour six.
Q: What was it about Katee Sackhoff or her body of work that made you want to cast her?
Howard Gordon: All the writers were just fans of her from Battlestar. We just met her and liked her as a person. We knew this was a character with a past and this was a really interesting actor. In all honesty, we weren’t sure where the character was going to go. We just proceeded in good faith that we’d find something. It was a challenging part and Katee was game for everything we threw at her. Particularly in episode 20 I think that was her greatest moment. I think that was some phenomenal and nuanced performance that she gave.
Q: Even without the real time concept, will the movie a continuation of the series?
Howard Gordon: I’ve talked about this with Kiefer and with Billy Ray. We’re trying to get in sync with what we believe is requirement. There are two sets of requirements: Honoring the series and creative integrity of the character, and also potentially bringing in new people who can go back and watch and believe it’s been consistent. I think we recognize that we’re serving two masters or two audiences, not that they’re mutually exclusive but that there are two different requirements. That’s an ongoing question. What I really think is important that we do is not retread on [what we’ve already done,] make sure that like every season, that we’re moving forward with this character, that he’s in a place where we begin that’s a different place than he’s been before. We all realize we need to define that space. That’s what we’re figuring out.
Q: Without the hook of the real time, what can you do in a movie that you couldn’t on the series?
Howard Gordon: Well, in terms of the real time part of it, really the epiphany even to do the movie is really Jack is just a great character and take the real time conceit out of the equation for now, which I think is a huge part of the show I understand but I think Jack as a character has sufficiently broad shoulders to carry a movie in this genre. The contract we bought with our audience was “not good, never boring.” We really required a lot of latitude from our fans. I think our side of the contract was the keep it interesting and exciting. Even when some of these moments felt preposterous or strange, it always was interesting. Even if you wanted to yell at the TV, as long as they were yelling, we were happy.
Q: Are you happy that the ticking clock will be the show’s legacy?
Howard Gordon: Well, I think you’re right. One of the legacies of the show and perhaps the most important one is the revolutionary concept, but I think the legacy of the show, again having been here from the beginning, is the fact that we never let go of the reigns and never truly let down our guard. I’m proud of the effort everybody put into the show. The audience stayed with us by and large and I think that’s a measure of we kept the story interesting to us. Consequently it was interesting to write it. It’s not an impact but we certainly have had an interesting dance with the culture and society and the world after 9/11 so I think we were very much a part of the first decade of this century. We played a roll in it somehow. I think that legacy is a good one but hopefully we put on a good TV show that people will continue to watch on DVD and in reruns.
Q: Does ending the show indicate we’re in a different place than we were in 2001?
Howard Gordon: You know, the answer to me is really no. The show is eight years old, or actually nine years old and eight seasons and a movie. Everything has a beginning middle and end. That might’ve been the case back in season six. When it seemed that all these negative associations with the White House and torture policies and a bunch of other policies, were unfair negative associations that this show was of a certain time. I think season seven successfully rebooted the show and answered some of those criticisms, and leveled the playing field again so we could tell a good story. It’s not a measure at all frankly. I think the appetite would have kept us going if there had been a story to tell. I think Jack Bauer has a story, a beginning, middle and end and we’ve come to it.
Q: What kind of resolution can we expect between Jack and Chloe now that they’re opposing each other?
Howard Gordon: Well, we took three character, Jack, Taylor and Chloe and we really switched things around. We had this moment in episode 18 and 19, these moments that were very difficult to write and they really fought back, but there is a resolution. They’re all well earned. We tried to create situations that credibly justified these change-ups in their characters so we could understand what obviously was a complex situations with moving parts. It was difficult. Mary Lynn felt this too but to me it’s honoring this character, who isn’t the same character she was all those years back when she was this very idiosyncratic analyst at CTU. She’s a woman, she’s an adult, she’s a mother, she’s a wife and she’s now a boss. And a boss who’s posed to this old and good friend to whom she’s loyal and who she cares about but she also has a job to do. This guy has lost someone and perhaps lost some part of himself in the process which is potentially dangerous, not only to Chloe’s job but to the right thing. So I think it’s pretty well justified and we do have enough time to resolve it and I think it’s resolved pretty well.
Q: What has been the most creative fulfilling part of 24?
Howard Gordon: Getting to work with such talented people is a privilege that you’d have to have been doing it for long enough and be of a certain age to really appreciate it. Starting with my colleagues, my fellow writers who are just brilliant, I got to work with some of the best writers and producers in the business. The entire crew, but because of the culture we created, everyone was a stakeholder in the show. Whether hair or makeup or props and our editors, our editors are some of the best storytellers I’ve ever met. Not that it was a democracy but it was a creative effort and a team. Getting to work with people who I’ll never get a chance to work with this many talented people again was an amazing privilege. It was just a great nine years.
Q: Have you kept anything from the set?
Howard Gordon: I have. It’s so funny, the prop guy actually gave me something. What he gave me, I think I’m spoiling it but it’s a prop that hasn’t been on yet. It’s a pen, a special pen. That’ll come up and I have that on my desk now, a pen used for the signing of the peace treaty.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.