24 movie adaptationThough Tony Scott is no longer attached to the film, the folks over at 20th Century Fox are reportedly ready to pull the trigger on the oft-rumored 24 big screen adaptation. Rumors began popping up earlier this year about the return of Jack Bauer in a big theatrical tent-pole film version of the terror-fighting CTU agent, but an unready script by Billy Ray supposedly put the project on hiatus.

Enter Kiefer Sutherland who soon thereafter seemed to confirm that the film was still in the works and that certain elements from Ray's original script would remain. Said Sutherland about the film in an interview earlier this year with Extra, "It's a very difficult thing to take something that you've done for eight years, almost 200 episodes, and try and find a story that's going to be unique and yet service the history of the show as well. That is to be expected. So we start shooting hopefully by next December or January."

Now Deadline confirms that 24 is almost ready for production with a new screenplay by action scribe Mark Bomback.

20th Fox has set a goal of getting the film into production on a schedule that aligns with that of Sutherland, which means next April. Keep an eye out though as no director has officially been attached yet, even though no fewer than five are in the running.

Bomback is no foreigner to action films as he's long been a favorite at 20th Century, having written the screenplays for Live Free or Die Hard and Unstoppable, and is currently writing The Wolverine and Shadow Divers for the studio. He will reportedly have his script ready to turn in by year's end.

Looks like this thing is going to happen after all.