Taken was a massive hit for Liam Neeson which showed a side to his performance that bested even a Steven Seagal martial arts flick. As retired CIA agent Bryan Mills, he would stop at nothing and leave no-one standing in the search for his kidnapped daughter, played by former Lost alumni Maggie Grace. The film was directed by Pierre Morel and was written and produced by Luc Besson who last month closed a deal with Liam Neeson to reprise what has become something of a signature role. At one stage his return looked uncertain having indicated that he wanted to take the rest of the year off after finishing work on the ‘Clash of the Titans’ follow-up and having also wrapped production on ‘The Grey’ for Joe Carnahan and ‘Battleship’ for Peter Berg. The actor has been working constantly since his wife’s untimely passing in 2009.
Production was originally set to commence early this year and at one point other actors were being considered, but after a deal was reached, shooting is set to begin in Istanbul at year’s end or the beginning of 2012.
Maggie Grace has also closed a deal with Luc Besson’s EuropaCorp to reprise her role, though at this stage it’s not known how central her character will be or if she get’s ‘taken’ again.
The actress just finished work on the fourth Twilight installment ‘Breaking Dawn’ and ‘Lockout’, which Besson also produced. The only downside is that director Pierre Morel – who’s been working on a ‘Dune’ reboot, looks unlikely to return with ‘Transporter 3’ director Olivier Megaton poised to helm the sequel.
The original took in $146 million in the U.S and grossed around $227 million globally, so a sequel was on the cards, hopefully they’ve got a good script that will justify the return of all the major players and allow Liam Neeson to utter a similar warning:
via: Deadline
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