Now that 24 is being shuffled off to the great syndication network in the sky, thoughts have turned to the slowly developing cinematic version of the show. If you ever wondered how Jack Bauer might work on the big screen, you can see one possible outcome in the trailer for the new thriller Unthinkable.
Directed by Gregor Jordan, the thriller finds a US terrorist (Michael Sheen, playing in unshaven creep mode) claiming to have planted bombs around the country. But his plans don’t factor in Samuel L Jackson’s driven anti-terrorist officer, who has had it with these motherfn’ explosives on this motherfn’ plane… of existence.
He’s naturally ready to go full Bauer and torture Sheen to get the information he needs, but here comes pesky fellow agent Carrie-Anne Moss, who’s all “torture’s wrong and against the constitution and bunnies and stuff.”
This all sets up a face-off between the opposing views, and things going ‘splodey as the argument rages and the dialogue shifts ever further into worryingly b-movie territory.
Which might explain why, despite the presence of Jackson, Moss and particularly Sheen, this one appears destined to skip cinemas – it doesn’t have a US release date set and is currently listed as a straight-to-DVD title over here, with a planned June launch.