Extending the 24 Franchise

The gimmick of the Fox series 24 is that the stories play out in real time over 24 hours. Entertainment Weekly reports that the producers of 24  are seriously considering a feature film version that would follow a story that unfolds in real time over two tense hours. They also forsee the possibility of extending the 24 brand into spin-off series, ala LAW AND ORDER and CSI, with any number of different heroes in different settings in stories that play out over a single day.

I see a real difference between the LAW AND ORDER branding and what has been done with CSI. The three LAW AND ORDER shows are essentially stand-alone, unique series that share the same name, music cues, and style. The three CSI shows, however, are exactly the same show set in different cities. 24 could, concievably, strike a middle ground between the two approaches to branding…only the storytelling device is the same and everything else is different. But will viewers tire of the real-time gimmick? They haven’t lost their interest in the three identical CSIs yet…

3 thoughts on “Extending the 24 Franchise”

  1. Why not just put out a real-time series called “52,” in which a character has one hellish night of adventure a week — then six boring off-camera days — for 23 weeks; then gets caught in a time-loop during the holidays and summer months, and must go through the same damn experiences again?

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  2. Let’s face it, great though the 24 concept is (and it really is) Keifer Sutherland is 24. That’s why a TV franchise wouldn’t work for me.
    As to a movie, the shorter the time frame for a thriller the better the tension. Die Hard and Speed to name but two. So I think the flick could be terrific.
    Though shouldn’t it be 2.4 to maintain the franchise link, with a running time of 2 hours 24 minutes?

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