The following takes place… sometime in the future. But in this case, it could be the near future. Variety is reporting that 20th Century Fox's film and TV divisions are teaming up to finally bring the television series 24 to the big screen, though it cautions things are still in the preliminary stages. So while there's no word yet on whether or not Season 8 will be the series' last on television — a decision from the network about a ninth season is expected in the next month or so — Jack Bauer could be around for some time to come, even if the series does evaporate.What can we expect from a potential feature? According to the trade, Billy Ray (State of Play, Flightplan) will write the script for the feature. His pitch, which takes Jack Bauer to Europe (a possibility about which we reported back in late December), was apparently a hit with Fox executives and producers of the TV series.Variety adds that the script came through 24 star and executive producer Kiefer Sutherland, who is reportedly eager to turn the series into a feature franchise.I've often said before that if a 24 feature film is evolved to the same sophistication as the 'Bourne' franchise, this could be a lucrative move for Fox. A feature won't have the protracted ticking clock gimmick to fall back on, so it will need instead to rely on deft writing and a sharp storyline. The same tired TV tricks won't work on the big screen, especially after eight years. Sutherland's desire to see a film make use of Europe as a backdrop is probably a good first step in adding some scale and gravitas to the storyline.

Written and produced by Nikita and The Fifth Element director Luc Besson, the French action film District 13 (Banlieue 13) premiered in 2004 and became an instant global success, primarily due to the spring-loaded parkour stunt work of the film’s two leads, Cyril Raffaelli and David Belle. Now the fleet-footed heroes are back in the adrenalin-packed, heart-stopping sequel, District 13: Ultimatum. The film picks up where the first installment left off. But not much in the Parisian slum District 13 has changed. It is still a crime-infested enclave of the French capital, pockmarked with bullet holes and adorned with anti-government graffiti. It is a place for cage fighting, gun trade and open air iron pumping. From here contraband and cocaine (packed in watermelons) are trafficked. When planted drugs are found in his apartment, undercover police captain Damien Tomaso (Raffaelli), who was in line to receive the prestigious Order of Merit for his service to the police force, escapes custody and joins forces with Leïto (Belle) from D-13. Together they work to expose a complex plot led by the French secret service to destroy the banlieu and all of its inhabitants in order to free up the prime real estate for new development. Time is against them as they race to derail the plan before simmering tensions in the Soweto-like District 13 threaten to erupt into all-out civil violence. Despite his lack of acting experience, David Belle was picked by Besson to star in District 13 (2004). At the time Belle had appeared in a few feature films in which he had applied his unique skills in parkour or l'art du déplacement, the art of negotiating physical objects by adapting one’s movement to any given environment. The term parkour had been coined by Belle and his friend Hubert Koundé, and has since been showcased in films such as Casino Royale and Live Free or Die Hard.In a recent interview conducted over the phone from Paris, David Belle talked exclusively with CinemaSpy about his role in the District 13 films, the injury he incurred on the set of the latest movie, and working with Jake Gyllenhaal on the hotly anticipated Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.CinemaSpy: You were contacted by Luc Besson about co-starring as the lead in District 13 in 2003. Did Luc Besson write the character of Leïto specifically with you in mind? David Belle: To be quite honest with you I did spend quite a lot of time with him afterwards and he did have the opportunity to get to know me personally. I think he did it by imagining how I was without really knowing me, and I did find aspects of the character that bore a striking resemblance to me, in spite of that.CinemaSpy: So then what are the aspects of Leïto’s character that appeal to you and which of his personality traits do you recognize in yourself? How close to him are you?David Belle: I think we have a similar attitude. In life in general I am a little crazy sometimes. I like to have a good time. But, generally, I would say that I am serious, attentive. I have my antennae out. I am more like that than someone who is all over the map. And I think those are the points that I have in common with the character of Leïto, who is someone who is determined, who is concentrating on what he is going to do. In the back of his head he always has an alarm that is about to go off. I cannot say that Luc Besson knew me well enough to see all of that but I have to say that I am very happy to see that in that regard the character was not too distant from my own personality. CinemaSpy: Before you begin work on a film like District 13: Ultimatum, do you put yourself through a different physical training regimen than ordinarily? Is each scene very carefully choreographed or is there a lot of room for physical improvisation on set? David Belle: Well, we do have space on the set to warm up, to prepare. We throw out some ideas but we do most of that when we are looking for locations. Once we find what we want, we have time to mess around then. But when we actually do the shoot we don’t have much room for improvisation. We don’t have a lot of time to try out a lot of things. We can rehearse it but we do the minimum rehearsals before we shoot it and I should say that when we do the final take, then we pay closer attention. But, for guys like me and Cyril, we don’t have to do a lot of advance preparation. That may not be the case a few years from now! But now we can say we are in form. We work out at the hotel and we do watch what we eat of course: less pizza, less hamburgers. For one month, we just have sushi and that helps us to make sure that we stay in shape. CinemaSpy: Nowadays, some of your stunt sequences could be achieved through CGI effects. What are the keys to filming your sequences to allow audiences to know that they are watching a real action event? David Belle: If you are going to see a film like this, you can do a little research on the Internet and you know what you are going to see. One of our main priorities is authenticity. On the other hand we have to avoid accidents because sometimes we have to shoot it a couple of times. We have to take precautions to guarantee our own safety. But it is also very important that the actor himself be free. So we have tried to do takes that show the audience as great a number of wide ranging shots as possible so that if the actor is there, you see that he is really experiencing the action directly.CinemaSpy: Talking about avoiding accidents, what was the worst injury that you experienced making District 13: Ultimatum?David Belle: Actually, yes, I did have an injury on my lower arm, and I was injured in a place that nobody would have expected it. There was a door that should have been closed that was left ajar. And as I was running, my forearm got stuck on the doorknob, which penetrated the skin and I needed five stitches. And that was scary because I still had some stunt scenes to do, I had some parkour scenes on the roof, and I was afraid that I might aggravate the injury and re-open the skin again. So you can see in some of the scenes that there is something on my arm that is protecting it. CinemaSpy: You have now worked on three English-language Hollywood films as the stunt or parkour coordinator, and appeared in two, Babylon A.D. and Femme Fatale. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is one of the most anticipated films of this year. Did you work closely with Jake Gyllenhaal? What are the important things to be aware of when you are working with actors that have little knowledge of stunts or parkour? How do you train them?David Belle: The idea is you move around with the actor to see where his limits are. How much can he do? I can do this. It is up to you as the coordinator to determine where those limits are and whether he needs to be substituted with a stuntman, whether it is a risk that he can handle or not. Unless he is really comfortable with it, it is probably better for him to be substituted with a stunt guy. Now, in the case of Prince of Persia, Jake prepared himself well physically and he was able to do a lot of stuff himself. CinemaSpy: I've read that after your national service you worked in various professions including as a warehouse worker, a security guard and a furniture salesman. You then flew to India and obtained a Black Belt in kung fu, and returned to France with a new skill set. What inspired you to go to India and change your career path?David Belle: I was engaged in parkour before I left for India. I went down there for personal reasons. I was in the army and I left the army to go to India and spent three months there. I showed them what I knew about parkour from the jumps, and they said "Oh, that is very interesting. But we don’t do that. Nothing like that." They taught me Chinese kung fu. For the three months that I was there, there wasn’t much time for me to learn that much. But they wanted to be able to give me a diploma certificate when I finished. So they insisted that I participate in combat, in a small fight, which I did. I have to say that when I got back from India to France I was suffering for two weeks from the blows I received!CinemaSpy: I've also read that you're sometimes pursued by the police in cities where you practice parkour because they think you have stolen something, and are on the run. Do you think your devil-may-care, free spirit is inherited, passed on from generation to generation, because I believe that both your father and your grandfather, who were firefighters, had a similar spirit?David Belle: I am a free soul. I feel that when I move around God is looking down upon me from high. If he looks at me, I have nothing to be ashamed of. I am not doing anything bad. He will see a human being who is happy and who is climbing rocks. If parkour today has so much impact on the world today, I think it originated from a very pure thought, and not out of a desire to derive commercial benefit. This spirit of freedom was picked up upon by the youth today, and that is why they like parkour today. They feel this liberty when they engage in it. CinemaSpy: With the success of parkour on the big screen, you then also began taking acting lessons. You have worked with and been on sets with actors like Jean Reno, Antonio Banderas, Charlotte Rampling and Michelle Yeoh. Are there any actors that you particularly admire?David Belle: First of all, I would like to just say that I have enjoyed working with everybody that I have worked with, and I would love to have a repeat experience with any of them. As far as actors I would like to work with in the future, Hugh Jackman, Matt Damon, Brad Pitt—who doesn’t like Brad Pitt? With any of them, I would like to have the impression of evolving, of moving forward, and then I could learn something from them. They are all pretty good in action but I would want to feel that I am growing. That would be magnificent.CinemaSpy: As you move forward into this decade, do you have any plans to move into other aspects of filmmaking, such as producing or perhaps even directing?David Belle: Well, I think what I am really interested in doing right now is getting to speak American English fluently. I am watching English-language subtitled films everyday. I have hired teachers. I am giving myself a certain period of time because in life the only thing worse than having failed is not having tried at all. And I have some good recommendations from Luc Besson, from Jerry Bruckheimer. We have a good rapport so I say "Why not continue?" I see that there is a door that is gaping open and the only thing holding me back is that I don’t speak American English. I would say that there is a greater probability of me playing a role in an American film with a well-known actor who will help me improve and learn than of me winning the lottery.

After weathering a storm of criticism from some Stargate fans over SGU: Stargate Universe, Syfy may be facing another fight for viewer goodwill with the other big series it debuted this television season: Caprica. The show aired its third episode last Friday and according to The Hollywood Reporter, its ratings have fallen for the second week in a row.Caprica debuted on Syfy in the U.S. and on SPACE in Canada with the airing of its two-hour pilot on January 22.  The Syfy broadcast drew 1.6 million viewers, THR reported a couple of days later. In contrast, the premiere of Stargate Universe was said to have pulled in 2.4 million viewers when it aired last fall. Prior to its television premiere, the Caprica pilot had already been released on DVD and online and many sites had made it available for free to residents of the United States. It was suggested that this might explain the low ratings.In the absence of such explanations, the even lower ratings for Episode Two were a surprise. The show's audience dropped by about 12% to 1.4 million viewers, according to the trade. They fell even further to 1.1 million for the episode that aired last Friday.Caprica is the prequel to Battlestar Galactica and focuses on the rivalry between two families; the Graystones and the Adamas. It's ratings suggest that it has not captured the attention of BSG fans or many other viewers who want to see the events that led up to the preceding series.For this writer, at least, a premature end to Caprica would be a shame. The pilot established a richly detailed world and introduced some thought-provoking themes, brought to the screen against a backdrop of excellent production design by an impressive cast. Caprica has the potential to be one of the best science fiction series on television, but I fear that it might need more than a prototype Cylon body to keep it alive.

Valentine's Day is only six days away, and if you'd like nothing better than to have a romantic dinner and snuggle up to a movie at home, then you need to listen up. Because choosing the right movie can be the difference between romantic heartache and a throbbing headache.Having trouble convincing your man to choose a movie other than the latest Michael Bay explode-o-rama? Is your special day usually commemorated by Vin Diesel and a rocket launcher? Does Steve-O and the rest of his Jackasses come between you and your night of romance? Well, here at CinemaSpy, we feel it is our civic duty to play cupid and offer up some amenable alternatives to tying up your lover and gagging his mouth.He may huff and pout at the beginning, but these films offer more than wet smooches on a windy cliff. You might even find him enjoying himself despite the initial struggling and handcuff chafing... In descending order of syllables...beginning with Mary & Harry:There's Something About Mary (1998)This one's probably the easiest one to get him to agree to as it was directed by the Farrelly brothers (Dumb and Dumber), filmmakers not known for subtlety or distinguished taste. However, it is effective as a romantic comedy despite its gross-out factor, providing you can stomach it, too... You have been warned.♥    ♥    ♥When Harry Met Sally (1989)Probably the most well-known of romantic comedies on the list is also one of the best. It has some of the most insightful observations on relationships disguised as wickedly sharp humor. Your guy may actually learn something without realizing it.♥    ♥    ♥The Princess Bride (1987)Before Pirates of the Caribbean, this was the period costume movie of choice. Thinly disguised as a fairy-tale, The Princess Bride is a hilarious romp with "fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles"...something for everybody.♥    ♥    ♥Shall We Dansu? (1996)For you more adventurous types, here's a comedy that will suck you in from the first minute. If you can get your man past the dancing theme, you're home free. You might even get him to agree to those dance lessons you've been nagging him to take with you... (Oh, and it's in Japanese.)♥    ♥    ♥City Lights (1931)I had this tied with another Chaplin film, The Gold Rush, both of which are wonderful examples of the comedian at his most romantic. Get over the fact that it is a silent film, and you will find yourself more emotionally moved than most modern movies. ♥    ♥    ♥All of Me (1984)Steve Martin and Lily Tomlin are a most unlikely couple, and the result is pure hilarity. Tomlin plays a terminally ill millionaire who hires a Tibetan swami to transfer her soul to that of a young healthy woman. Unfortunately all does not go as planned and her soul is plopped into Steve Martin's body instead. Awkward...♥    ♥    ♥Splash! (1984)A sentimental favorite starring a very young unlucky-in-love Tom Hanks, and Daryl Hannah as a mermaid. Supporting cast includes the very funny John Candy and Eugene Levy, who both very nearly steal the show.♥    ♥    ♥Amélie (2001)The French are well-known for being romantics, and this film is a big fat cartoon love letter to romanticism. Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet introduces us to Amelie, a young woman who sees the world through rose-colored glasses, and touches all those around her. Infectiously zany.♥    ♥    ♥Wall-E (2008)You read it right, Wall-E. The last two films on this list are animated (I promise I will not make any reference to your significant other's intellectual maturity). Like the Chaplin films mentioned above, Wall-E is largely a silent movie, yet it manages to be one of the most romantic fables ever committed to film. ♥    ♥    ♥Up (2009)Finally, Up, which is not exactly a romantic comedy per se, but the flashback scenes of old man Fredricksen and his deceased wife are some of the most brilliantly sentimental and touching I have ever seen.

Last week, we reported that The Dark Knight’s Jonathan Nolan might return to write the third Batman movie. Not only does that appear more likely than ever, but he could be co-scripting with another familiar Bat-face: David Goyer.It’s been widely-circulated that Goyer has left ABC's FlashForward, the television program on which he was serving as show runner, to concentrate on his feature career. Deadline reports that the departure stemmed from creative infighting and backbiting on the show, but paves the way for Goyer and Nolan to write the next Batman installment."As my feature projects have started ramping up again, I felt I was being pulled in too many directions," Goyer said in a statement. "I'm proud of the show and excited about the relaunch. It's in great hands."FlashForward has declined in the ratings since its premiere last September, and Goyer is the second show runner to bolt after Marc Guggenheim’s departure last October. The show is set to return on March 18, 2010 and run uninterrupted for the 14 episodes left on its order; five of those episodes, however, will have to be shot without Goyer.Goyer received a screenwriting credit for Batman Begins, the very successful reboot of the franchise helmed by Christopher Nolan, Jonathan Nolan’s brother. Although Goyer received a story credit for The Dark Knight, both Nolans’ names are credited for that film’s screenplay. Currently, he’s attached to a number of comic book-related films, including Ghost Rider, Y: The Last Man and Super Max, which will feature Green Arrow.

As The First Avenger: Captain America gradually rolls into production, it sounds as if director Joe Johnston is trying to make the least cheesy movie possible.Speaking to the Los Angeles Times’ Hero Complex blog, Johnston offered this little nugget of info regarding Cap’s origin, which deviates slightly from the comic book, but might explain why a grown man would run into a war zone dressed as an American flag."The costume is a flag, but the way we're getting around that is we have Steve Rogers forced into the USO circuit," Johnston said. "After he's made into this super-soldier, they decide they can't send him into combat and risk him getting killed. He's the only one and they can't make more. So they say, 'You're going to be in this USO show' and they give him a flag suit. He can't wait to get out of it.""It was never in the comics," Johnston said of the explanation, "because they didn't really need it. In comics, he puts on the costume and the reader just justifies because of the nature of the medium."It sounds like The First Avenger screenplay will continue the real-world approach taken by Iron Man, but just who will yield Cap’s mighty shield? "Well, we're testing five or six guys," Johnston said. "The youngest is 23, the oldest is 32. Most of the guys in the war are just kids, 18 or 19, but we want to go a little bit older. We have to have somebody locked in before I leave March 1 for London."The First Avenger: Captain America is set to start filming in London at the end of June. Johnston went on to say that he’s looking for a complete unknown, but that the actor will definitely be American. "I hope it’ll be somebody we discover and whose never been in… well, he’s probably been in something [but] you won’t know who he is or recognize him. We’ll surround him with more prominent names. That’s who we’re looking for. Will we find him? I don’t know. It’s tough," he said.Johnston also took part in a recent press conference for the film. The following is a run-down of additional details (courtesy of Collider), some of which may have been previously reported:The First Avenger: Captain America will be shot in HD, and if it’s released in 3-D, that will be done in post-production.The film will be shot in a different way than any of the other Marvel pictures have been shot.Most of the film will be set in the UK because the movie takes place in Europe.The Invaders (Marvel’s World War II-era characters, back when the company was called Timely) are a big part of the second half of the film.Captain America will wear two costumes during the film: The first is close to the Jack Kirby’s design, while the second is a sturdier, more muted version. Finally, according to AICN, Johnston said the villain is going to be the Red Skull, Cap’s longtime nemesis.