Liam Neeson's been taken with the idea of Taken 3 for quite some time, but now he's saying that no one will actually be taken. Follow that? Neeson will return for a third installment in the Bryan Mills' skills saga (for a reported $20 million paycheck) which saw him rescue his kidnapped daughter in Pierre Morel's 2008 original, only to be taken himself in Olivier Megaton's 2012 follow-up. Megaton will also return to helm Taken 3, but a new report quotes Neeson himself saying "nobody gets taken." Hit the jump for more.
Word via Bleeding Cool has Neeson promising a "really, really good story," but also throwing a bit of a curveball, saying:
They called me up and I said "I'll do it... but only as long as nobody gets Taken."
Apparently he wasn't joking. So will the Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen script shy away from kidnapping in favor of some other variety of taking? (Candy from a baby, etc.) We'll have to wait and see as Taken 3 doesn't go into production until later this year. Along with Neeson, series star Maggie Grace is also expected to return. A recent report also had Forest Whitaker in talks to join in an unspecified role.
Neeson can next be heard in Phil Lord and Chris Miller's animated adventure The Lego Movie next weekend, and will be seen in the Jaume Collet-Serra thriller Non-Stop later this month. This May, he'll star as the heavy in Seth MacFarlane's Western comedy, A Million Ways to Die in the West. He also recently joined the cast of Silence, reteaming with Gangs of New York director, Martin Scorsese.