Posts Tagged ‘the confession’

Enter By 11:59:59 EST on March 23, 2011

SOURCE: BradMirman.com and OurStage.com

SOURCE: TV Guide

Before Kiefer Sutherland makes his way back to the small screen, the 24 alum will be seen in a new web series, The Confession — a project that very well may end up as one of his career favorites.

“This is the first thing in my entire career that I’ve been involved in from the inception of the idea to the delivery of the product,” Sutherland says in a behind-the-scenes look at the series. “My interest stemmed from the challenge of trying to tell a five-minute story over a long period of time, and clearly the Internet is the largest network on the planet. … The potential for this landscape is massive.”

The Confession, composed of 10 five-to-seven-minute webisodes, follows a hit man (Sutherland) who discusses why his victims deserved to die with a priest (John Hurt). “[Each episode] will deal with kind of a more of an intellectual, theological discussion about God and then cut back to a murder or a crime he had committed,” Sutherland explains.

The series was shot over nine days in New York in January and also stars Michael Badalucco and Max Casella. It will premiere on Hulu this month.

See what else Sutherland, the cast and crew have to say about The Confession:

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ARTICLE SOURCE: Entertainment Weekly

Kiefer Sutherland, internet star? That’s the plan: EW has learned exclusively that Sutherland will follow up his critically-beloved run on 24 with a web series that’ll bow on Hulu this March. Dubbed The Confession, the 10 five-to-seven-minute webisodes will feature Sutherland as a hitman who has a theological discussion with a priest (John Hurt of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows) about why his victims deserved to die. The series, which was written and directed by Brad Mirman, ends with one helluva twist.

“It came about in such a different way,” Sutherland tells EW exclusively. ”I was meeting a couple friends of mine, who wanted to introduce me to Chris Young (of Digital Broadcasting Group). I know so little about the internet, but that’s what a lot of friends do for work. Most of that stuff being produced for the internet is comedy, very much like Jackass kind of material, which is great but didn’t appeal to me.

“Chris started talking about wanting to do a drama, but his criteria was so different. A drama in five-minute episodes! It was one of those things, like a puzzle over the course of the lunch. It can’t be that complicated to figure out a story in five minutes, right? I couldn’t, and it frustrated the crap out of me. So I went home that night, still thinking about it, and it stayed with me for three days. I was falling asleep when I literally got this idea of a confessional.”

The Confession was shot over nine days in New York last month, right before Sutherland began rehearsals for Broadway’s That Championship Season, which also stars Jason Patric and Chris Noth. “In all fairness, it looks fantastic,” Sutherland said of the web series, which he is exec producing with Young, Joseph Gomes and Maura Mandt. ”We shot it in the fifth-largest snow storm. It was pretty amazing.”

Much of the story plays out in action-packed flashbacks. “We called on a lot of favors,” Sutherland admitted. “A dollar is a dollar. It gets you what you get. There’s no way around that, so you’re phoning dear friends for favors. None of us were paid what we normally get paid. Everybody found their own challenge in it, and that was the reason to do it. All of us believe very strongly that the internet is the future, the largest network in world, with the ability to reach a big audience.”

Young, who serves as the CEO of DBG, released this statement: “The Confession sets a precedent for what is possible in original webisodic content. Never before has something of this magnitude and motion picture quality come to the third screen. I’m thrilled to be working with such A-list talent and top-tier sponsors to finally capture and crystallize the seismic shift in how content of this caliber is released, distributed and enjoyed by an audience that will rival that of a hit television series.”

But fear not, Sutherland fans: The ex-Jack Bauer has not given up on primetime TV. ”We have a couple ideas we are working on that we are very excited about. 24 was a lot of work, it certainly had its ups and downs. But for so many reasons, it was one of the great experiences of my life. I miss the daily grind of it, which I was surprised about because that’s the one thing you complain about all the time. Be careful what you ask for!”

And more good news about the 24 franchise: Sutherland says a big-screen version is still in the works and, in fact, he hopes to begin production within a year. Though Fox ultimately nixed a script by Billy Ray (State of Play), the movie remains “the little engine that could,” Sutherland tells EW. He acknowledged that 20th Century Fox has been working with director/producer Tony Scott (Man on Fire, The Good Wife) on the project. “Billy did a fantastic job and there are aspects of that story [that will remain],” the actor says. “I couldn’t be more thrilled.”

The Confession is a story of unique redemption and an exploration of good and evil featuring a hit man (Kiefer Sutherland), and a priest (John Hurt). The story begins on Christmas Eve, when the hit-man enters a church to confess his sins to the priest. Through a series of grip…ping flashbacks, the Confessor’s journey is revealed – laying out what has brought him to this moment and leading the audience to the dramatic ending where the man’s chances at ultimate redemption hang in the balance. While at first the Confessor seems to be an evil, cold-blooded killing machine and the Priest the ultimate arbiter of good, as the series develops it becomes clear that both characters are much more complicated than either could have suspected.

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