Kristen Stewart has signed on to play the lead in Like Crazy director Drake Doremus’ futuristic love story Equals, and it’s making her a nervous wreck. “I can’t believe I agreed to do it,” the Twilight actress said about her coming role in the scifi drama, which also stars Nicholas Hoult of the forthcoming X-Men: Days of Future Past. Stewart describes Equals as an updated filmic translation of 1984, George Orwell’s classic 1949 novel about rebellion in a repressed futuristic society. Equals begins filming later this year. “I’m terrified of it,” said the 23-year-old actress in a recent interview. “Though it’s a movie with a really basic concept, it’s overtly ambitious.” Jennifer Lawrence, who appeared in 2011’s Like Crazy, was one of the first actresses to read the script. Although the story brought her to tears, she couldn’t see herself in the role, said Doremus. “It became evident in my head that Nick and Kristen would have great chemistry,” the director said. “It’s a love story of epic, epic, epic proportion,” added Stewart. “I’m scared.”

Jack is back. The hit series 24, starring Kiefer Sutherland as embattled super spy Jack Bauer, is being resurrected as 24: Live Another Day, a 12-episode series that will debut May 5 on Fox. The original show ended in May 2010 after eight seasons. “I’m as anxious and as frightened as I have been in a long time,” Sutherland said during a morning session at the Television Critics Association press tour promoting the project in Pasadena, Calif. He said 24 set a high standard that he hoped the new series could reach. “I’m very proud of the show, and to think about reaching that level again is pretty frightening,” Sutherland said. Also starring in the new series is Mary Lynn Rajskub, who will reprise her role as Chloe O’Brian, the often irritated tech whiz who assisted Jack through his many missions. Others from the former series include Kim Raver and William Devane. The new show picks up a few years after the original show ended, with Bauer a fugitive. He is being hunted by a CIA agent played by Yvonne Strahovski (Dexter). He re-enters the scene on his own terms. But this time around, he is pitted against former ally Chloe, whose life as a government agent has taken an emotional toll. She has joined the free-information movement as a moral radical.

Front Section, Pages 2 on 01/15/2014