24: Season 8 Begins Casting..

Slumdog star joining Jack Bauer next adventure..

While we're still watching 24's seventh season play out, the FOX action series actually wrapped production months ago, thanks to the strange production schedule brought about by last year's writers' strike – which delayed Season 7 airing by a full year. 24 will actually begin production on Season 8 in May, as Season 7 is winding down, and casting has now begun for the next season.

The Hollywood Reporter says Anil Kapoor will be joining the cast as a series regular for Jack Bauer's next bad day. Kapoor, a star in India, is now familiar to American audiences for his role in the Academy Award winning Slumdog Millionaire, in which he played the host of the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

Anil Kapoor in Slumdog Millionare

The Reporter says Kapoor will play "a Middle Eastern leader who comes to the U.S. on a peacemaking mission."