KIEFER SUTHERLAND - FOX PLANS 24 'PREQUEL MOVIE' TO SOOTHE IMPATIENT FANS

The producers of hit American drama 24 are reportedly planning a two-hour TV movie 'prequel' to tide viewers over until the new season airs in the new year.

24, starring Kiefer Sutherland as maverick counterterrorism officer Jack Bauer, was among the biggest casualties of the Hollywood writers' strike, with the show's seventh season being put back from January this year to 2009.

The first eight episodes of the real-time drama have already been filmed, but were not shown so the season could be broadcast in its entirety.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Fox wants to air a two-hour prequel movie to bridge the gap between the sixth and seventh seasons.

Season six of 24 was originally broadcast in the US at the beginning of 2007, but the TV movie is also intended to outline what has changed at CTU HQ during the two-year hiatus.

Sutherland, who spent most of January in a Los Angeles Jail after pleading no contest to drink-driving charges, has already confirmed in interviews that a fully-fledged 24 movie had been given the green light, but a feature film project has now been put on hold.

The next season of 24 could see life imitating art if Hillary Clinton wins the Democratic presidential nomination, with Cherry Jones starring as the US' first female president.