Update: ABC’s Designated Survivor, starring Kiefer Sutherland as President Kirkland, turned out to be the mystery TV series he spoke of at the Whistler Film Festival.
Canada’s own Kiefer Sutherland was honoured with the WFF 2015 Trailblazer in Acting Award ahead of the Western premiere of Forsaken, starring Kiefer and his father Donald Sutherland. What is the film about? Directed by Jon Cassar, Forsaken is an old-fashioned western that tells the story of a reformed gunslinger who returns home for a quiet life at the family homestead until he’s pushed too far by a ruthless land grabber and his hired guns.
Sutherland said the seven weeks spent shooting Forsaken was the longest period of time he’d ever spent with his father, who lived in Los Angeles while Sutherland was growing up in Canada.
Forsaken and 24 director Jon Cassar
Of course Kiefer Sutherland is best known as 24’s badass Jack Bauer, who fought terrorists 24 hours at a time for eight seasons on FOX until the series finale in May 2010. Last year 24 returned with a special event series 24: Live Another Day set in London.
Don’t worry. If I wanted to kill you, you’d be dead by now — Jack Bauer.
Sutherland said the finds the slower pace of a major film “kind of plodding” particularly because most big productions don’t use that extra time wisely. He prefers the fast pace of television over film. “One of the things I loved most about doing 24 was the difference between being in a sports car and a bus….I really like the sports car.”