Roush on 24
Question: I am interested to hear your views on the upcoming
24 prequel movie, especially the fact that it is set in South Africa. Has such a thing (filming a TV-movie for a television series in a foreign country) been done before? What is the main reason that Fox has approved such an obviously expensive project? And what do you personally make of this piece of news?
— Yong
Matt Roush: Filming overseas isn't common, but it's not unheard of. Bones, for one, is filming its two-hour season opener in London (and believe me, that's got to be costing a fortune given the state of the U.S. dollar). But this 24 prequel, which I'm sure isn't being done on the cheap, is clearly being positioned as a major TV event of the November sweeps. And while I won't actually have an opinion on any of this until I get to see it, I do think it's a very smart strategy for Fox to produce this movie-length prequel to jump-start and stimulate interest in the next season, especially given how long we've had to wait between cycles of this show. (Thanks again, writers' strike.)
