Manny Coto and Evan Katz have pretty cool jobs. As producers and writers on 24, they get to live in Jack Bauer’s shoes, decide on cool ways to portray national crises, and spitball new and terrifying ways for Jack Bauer to kill terrorists. As fun as it might be, it is also a ton of work that comes with enormous pressure, both from fans and the FOX network. In August, a couple of us at BuddyTV received the great honor of visiting the set of 24. We got to see new president of the 24 world, Cherry Jones, address us from the Oval Office, and we also got to speak with a few of the producers of 24, including Manny Coto and Evan Katz. You can find the first part of our video interview with those two below.
This first part of the interview deals mainly with the special two-hour 24 prequel movie, entitled 24: Redemption. The film, which will air on FOX Sunday, November 23, deals mostly with Jack Bauer exiled in Africa and, as the man is wont to do, saving the day using his tried and true Jack Bauer methods. During the interview with Cherry Jones, I was tapped on the shoulder by one of our friends over at FOX, asking if I wanted a few minutes with Evan Katz and Manny Coto. Well, that was impossible to turn down, so we had a little impromptu discussion in the hallway outside of the Oval Office. Such things can be quite surreal.
Katz and Coto were candid and affable. They clearly have a great time doing what they do. They are also quite humble, and have no problem admitting that mistakes were made in the conception of season 6. They learned from the mistake, and have taken great care to win back 24 fans with both the prequel movie and season 7. In the interview, they have some interesting things to say about how both the strike and the prequel movie informed their decisions regarding season 7.
-Oscar Dahl, BuddyTV Senior Writer
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Senior Writer, BuddyTV
