Kiefer Sutherland is pleased the '24' movie is "exempt" from being written minute-by-minute.

The 43-year-old actor - who played lead character Jack Bauer in the TV series - admits there will be no real-time plot in the film, something which is he is grateful for.

He said: "You should sit down and try to write a story in real-time - from minute to minute - to see how hard it is. Very few writers have succeeded and some quite extraordinary writers have failed trying that. Believe me, it's incredibly complicated.

"Now we are exempt from that. We can do something that was impossible for us - we can cut. Again an example: If the first sequence in the film takes place between one and three clock in the afternoon, we can now jump to six o'clock in the early evening - that was previously impossible."

However, Kiefer refuses to confirm any more details about the film, telling people to wait and see.

He told Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper: "Wait a bit to see what we come up with. We are already in pre-production, the whole concept will be certain in a few weeks time. I like to repeat it even if you find it at the moment unfortunate: the end of real-time was inevitable."

'State of Play' screenwriter Billy Ray has written The Script for '24', which does not yet have a release date.