Posted in: Movies | Tagged: liam neeson, luc besson, maggie grace, olivier megaton, robert mark kamen, taken, taken 2, taken 3

Fox Starts Work On Taken 3 Because There's Just Too Much Money To Be Made

Ex-CIA operative Bryan Mills just doesn't seem to get a break. In Taken he had to deal with his daughter being kidnapped by a gang of Albanian human traffickers, and was barely given time to recover before being kidnapped himself in Taken 2. Perhaps he'd be comforted to know that the action sequel topped last weekend's box office with $50m worth of ticket sales, much higher than what had previously been estimated. On the strength of that, it seems as though both the screenwriters and Twentieth Century Fox are eager to get another sequel on the production line.

In a recent interview with Hollywood (the blog, not the place; the latter would imply that he just stood on the Hollywood sign and yelled out his opinions to anyone in town who would listen), co-writer Robert Mark Kamen talked about the unexpected sequel that was Taken 2, and the newly-planned threequel that will be Taken 3.

We never talked about a sequel [to Taken]. But when we had this thing, a phenomenon, we took a look at it and said, 'What's the phenomenon?' It was a man striving to be reunited with his family. On the flip side, we had a man who just lost his family. We went from there.

[Luc Besson and I] didn't start talking about [Taken 3] until we saw the numbers. But then we said, 'Oh, okay. I think we should do a third one.' And Fox wants us to do a third one. We've taken everyone we can take – [Taken 3 is] going to go in another direction. Should be interesting.

Kamen didn't specify whether they've decided which direction Taken 3 will go in. The most obvious conclusion would be that Bryan Mills ends up having to kidnap someone, turning the whole thing on its head, but I prefer to believe that he will be abducted by aliens. And then probed.

Hey, I just want to hear the angry phone call he would make to the aliens afterwards.

Based on Kamen's words, it sounds fairly certain that he and Luc Besson will be co-writing the script for Taken 3, though there's no indication of whether or not the fabulously-named director Olivier Megaton will return to the helm. Liam Neeson has said before that he's not interested in returning for Taken 3, but in a recent interview with the Coventry Telegraph he seemed more open to the idea. However, he also expressed his belief that any continuation of the story should follow Bryan's daughter Kim instead.

I think we're finished. Mind you, I thought we were finished with the last one.

Maggie [Grace] is very fit, so I didn't have to teach her anything. She took it all on-board. So if there is a sequel it should be based on Maggie's character.

That may be Neeson's feeling at the moment, but would audiences really return for a Taken sequel where Bryan Mills is only in the background, or even not present at all? It seems more likely that Fox will offer a tidy sum and Neeson will jump right back into the spotlight.

Or tractor beam. You know, depending on how things turn out.

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