Fox’s award-winning real time drama 24 has shut down production so series star Kiefer Sutherland can undergo surgery for a ruptured cyst near his kidney.

The rapture occurred earlier last week but production continued through Friday with scenes that did not involve Sutherland. The actor also serves as an executive producer on drama, which is now on its eighth season.

“While Kiefer Sutherland is frustrated to miss even one day of work, he and Fox decided together that it would be best to complete this minor elective procedure now,” the actor’s publicist wrote in a prepared statement.

“We are temporarily suspending production of 24 while our friend and colleague Kiefer Sutherland undergoes a medical procedure,” wrote 20th Century Fox Television in their own statement. “We hope to resume production shortly and do not anticipate any disruption in the broadcast of this season’s episodes.”

During the 2007-08 season, Sutherland opted to serve his full jail sentence related from his September 2007 drunk driving arrest in two installments to prevent any disruption to 24′s production schedule.

Earlier this month, Variety reported that the motion-picture division of 20th Century Fox had hired the screenwriter Billy Ray (State of Play, Shattered Glass) to write a script for a feature-length adventure for Jack Bauer.

24′s life as a TV series may be at an end. Fox has not yet renewed the drama for a ninth season, which would conflict with the film’s shooting schedule. The network is waiting for more ratings information before making a decision on 24‘s fate, according to Variety.

Show producers have long planned to bring Bauer & Co. to the big screen and originally intended to shoot a film between the sixth and seventh seasons. Plans were later deferred to allow producers to focus on the series. A made-for-TV movie, 24: Redemption, aired in 2008.