Are you ready to be Taken on a thrill ride once more?
Liam Neeson’s star continues to rise higher and higher with each passing moment, as the actor — who has three big features in the can already — is ready to reprise the role that took his career to the next level, in retired government operative Bryan Mills.
Deadline is reporting that Neeson and Luc Besson have been in talks about a sequel to the 2008 surprise hit Taken. It’s reported that Neeson, at first, was hesitant to revisit the character, simply due to how much work he’s been doing the past few years. With the sequel to Clash of the Titans, the Peter Berg adaptation of the board game Battleship, as well as The Grey (a film I personally can’t wait for), Neeson planned to take the rest of the year off.
Besson, who teamed up once again with writer Robert Mark Kamen to put together the script, wanted to start filming on Taken 2 this year, and was even ready to replace Neeson, with a list of potential candidates that included names like Mickey Rourke, Ralph Fiennes, Sean Bean and Jason Isaacs. While each are great fits for the type of character Mills is — well, except for Rourke, who doesn’t work at all, and really doesn’t belong on the list — none of them would nail it as well as Neeson did the first time out.
Though it seems as though that list is being used for nothing more than lining a birdcage, as Besson and Neeson have worked out a plan that would see filming on the sequel begin late 2011, early 2012. It’s also being reported that Besson is in talks with Transporter 3 director Oliver Megaton to get behind the camera for the second film.
In the end this is great news for fans of the original, as I believe this is a franchise character for Neeson, and one that he personifies, much like Bruce Willis is Die Hard. What do you guys think, are you looking forward to a sequel to one of the best action films in recent years? Do you think the series could’ve survived had Besson chose to go ahead without Neeson? Sound off below!
