'24' Dials Up Unique Spinoff

This may have been posted a while back, but I thought this was cool!

http://tv.zap2it.com/tveditorial/tve_main/1,1002,271|91734|1|,00.html

LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) The jury is still out on whether mobile phones cause cancer, but an unexpected side effect seems to be that mobiles can produce television spinoffs.

Why does Jack Bauer's cell phone never seem to run out of batteries on "24"? And why does he always seem to have reception, where everybody in Los Angeles knows that dead patches are as common as traffic jams? It's difficult to think of a television show (with the possible exception of "American Idol") where cell phones are more central to the plot. It's fitting, then, that "24" is entering into a first-of-its-kind deal to launch an only-for-cell-phones spinoff.

"24: Conspiracy" will premiere on British mobile phones in January 2005 thanks to a new pact between the show's US production company 20th Century Fox TV and Vodaphone. Subscribers will get one-minute episodes downloaded to their phones on a weekly basis. Every 60-second episode will also end with a cliffhanger, which could make for some frantic phone viewing.

Plans are underway to distribute "24: Conspiracy" through Verizon Wireless in the United States in 2005.
"Joel Surnow, Bob Cochran, Howard Gordon, Kiefer Sutherland and their entire creative team have built '24' into one of the world's leading television brands. It's incumbent upon us at the studio to continually develop new initiatives to service, enhance and extend that brand," says Twentieth Century Fox Television President Gary Newman. "The '24' mobile series and the licensing and marketing partnership with world wireless leader Vodafone are truly unprecedented in our business, as they capitalize on the absolute latest in technological innovation and represent a whole new way to reach our fans and promote the original television series."

Not surprisingly, "24: Conspiracy" won't star Kiefer Sutherland and it won't feature any of the CTU agents familiar to viewers of the Emmy-winning drama. Instead, in the first "mobisode," viewers will meet Martin Kail, a CTU agent entrusted with tracking down Susan Walker, a rogue agent who appears to have murdered a government official.

The thespians signed on for this direct-to-phone venture include Beverly Bryant and Dylan Bruce. Don't bother trying to scratch your head to remember Bryant and Bruce, because the Internet Movie Database can't find them either.

The premiere of "24: Conspiracy" will coincide with the British premiere of "24" on Sunday, Jan. 30, 2005. The show returns a bit earlier in the States, launching with a two-hour premiere on Sunday, Jan. 9.