The voice cast for Warner Bros.’ Lego: Piece of Resistance is growing.  Written and directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller (Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, 21 Jump Street), the 3D film takes place in a world made of Legos and centers on Emmet (voiced by Chris Pratt), an “instruction worker” who is mistaken for the Master Builder.  The Lego crew then embarks on a quest to prevent an evil tyrant from gluing the universe together.  Elizabeth Banks, Will Arnett, and Morgan Freeman are all onboard, and now Deadline reports that Will Ferrell, Liam Neeson, Nick Offerman, and Alison Brie are joining the top-notch voice cast.

Ferrell will play the film’s antagonist, President Business (brilliant), with Neeson onboard as his henchman, Bad Cop (also brilliant).  Offerman will play “a craggy, swaggering pirate obsessed with revenge on President Business” while Brie is set as a member of Emmet’s team who harbors a powerful secret.  Lego: Piece of Resistance opens on February 7th, 2014.

Last week, Steve attended the American Film Market (AFM) and was able to bring back some first images, posters, and synopses for a handful of upcoming projects.  One such film happens to be the Liam Neeson-fronted action thriller Non-Stop, for which we now have the first detailed synopsis.  The story takes place during an international flight on which Neeson is an Air Mashal.  His character begins to receive a series of text messages from someone who threatens to kill a passenger every 20 minutes until $150 million is transferred into a secret account.

Neeson reunites with Unknown director Jaume Collet-Serra for the pic, which is described as a mix of a mystery, actioner, and a Hitchcockian thriller.  Moreover, Collet-Serra has assembled a surprisingly top-notch cast that includes Julianne Moore, Scoot McNairy, and Michelle Dockery.  Hit the jump to read the full synopsis, which includes more detail.

Despite receiving mostly negative reviews, the action sequel Taken 2 scored big with audiences this past weekend.  The Liam Neeson-fronted action film took in $50 million at the box office opening weekend, and a success of that magnitude in this moviegoing climate means one thing: more sequels!  A recent interview with Taken 2 scribe Robert Mark Kamen reveals just that, as he talked frankly about the likelihood of making another follow-up in the wake of Taken 2’s success.  Hit the jump to see what he had to say.

It’s a weekend box office worth celebrating, with grosses up more than 50% from 2011. That success was almost entirely due to Taken 2, which delivered an estimated $50 million from 3,661 runs for one of the highest October debuts of all time. On the other end of the spectrum, Disney’s Frankenweenie failed to impress; opening in fifth place with an estimated $11.5 million from 3,005 runs despite weeks of heavy promotion.

Now playing in theaters is director Olivier Megaton‘s Taken 2.  In the sequel, Liam Neeson’s character unwisely takes his family on a European vacation, only to find himself and his wife (Famke Janssen) taken hostage by the family members of the henchmen that Neeson brutally murdered in the first film.  The film also stars Maggie Grace and Rade Serbedzija. For more on the film, here’s four clips and all our previous coverage.

Last week in New York City I participated in two interviews with Neeson.  One was an exclusive video interview (which you can watch here), and the other was a roundtable interview with a number of other journalists.  During the group interview Neeson talked about how the sequel came together, what it was like filming in Istanbul, the car stunts, how much of a backstory he has created for the character, what it’s like being considered an action star, what props he’s taken home from set, his thoughts on a Taken 3, and more.  In addition, Neeson talked about working with Ricky Gervais on Life’s Too Short, told a great behind the scenes story about making Batman Begins, and revealed that Christopher Nolan wouldn’t tell him anything about The Dark Knight Rises.  Hit the jump for more.

If you’ve followed the Top 5 for any amount of time you’ve probably already deduced that I like to use the opening paragraph in an anecdotal fashion. Whether I’m spinning a recap of my latest pop-culture excursions or using the latest wedding I’m attending as a gateway for complaining about the pop-culture excursions I’d rather be partaking of, I try and keep this space at least loosely based around entertainment. That said, this week is no different as I finally had the chance to sit down with writer/director David Ayer‘s End of Watch last night. I won’t do the film the disservice of reviewing it in two sentences, but I will say that I found Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña‘s chemistry to be excellent and the action to be consistently suspenseful/captivating. Is the script’s attempt to tie nearly every encounter the partner’s undertake into an interconnected climax a little bit of a stretch? I think so. Nevertheless, End of Watch is still a cop drama that pushes almost all of the right buttons.

But enough of my reviews in 100 words or less, in this week’s trek down memory lane is the first official image and trailer for A Good Day to Die Hard, Taken 2 interviews with Liam Neeson, Famke Janssen and more, a recap of all our James Bond / Skyfall coverage from the past week, Frankenweenie interviews with Tim Burton, Winona Ryder and more, and finally a look at some classic video games that we feel deserve an HD remake.

Opening this weekend is director Olivier Megaton‘s Taken 2.  In the sequel, Liam Neeson’s character unwisely takes his family on a European vacation, only to find himself and his wife (Famke Janssen) taken hostage by the family members of the henchmen that Neeson brutally murdered in the first film.  The film also stars Maggie Grace and Rade Serbedzija. For more on the film, here’s four clips and all our previous coverage.

Last week in New York City I got to sit down with Neeson for an exclusive interview.  We talked about whether he was hesitant to do a sequel, what it was like to film in Istanbul, whether the script changed during production, and more.  In addition, we also talked about what it was like to host Saturday Night Live, how he was unclear regarding the nature of his role in The Dark Knight Rises or if he’d even make the final cut, whether he’ll work again with Joe Carnahan and if he knows anything about Mark Millar‘s Nemesis.  He also talked playing an air marshal in director Jaume Collet-Serra‘s upcoming action film Non-Stop, which is being produced by Joel Silver.  Hit the jump to watch.

With director Olivier Megaton‘s Taken 2 opening October 5, 20th Century Fox has provided us with four clips.  In the sequel, Liam Neeson’s character unwisely takes his family on a European vacation, only to find himself and his wife (Famke Janssen) taken hostage by the family members of the henchmen that Neeson brutally murdered in the first film.   The film also stars Maggie Grace and Rade Serbedzija.

As a big fan of the first film, I’m looking forward to Neeson kicking some more ass in the sequel.  Hit the jump to watch the clips.

Recently, Liam Neeson threatened you into submission so you would watch his new trailer for Taken 2.  Then, the first featurette went online that showed off retired CIA operative Bryan Mills’ “skills and kills.” Today, we’ll continue the rhyming scheme with a new behind-the-scenes stunt featurette that highlights the sequel’s “thrills and spills.”  Imagine my surprise when I found out Neeson wasn’t actually killing all the people in the movie.  I still wouldn’t want to piss him off though.

Taken 2, from director Olivier Megaton, also stars Famke Janssen, Maggie Grace and  Rade Serbedzija.  The sequel hits theaters October 5th.  Hit the jump to watch the new stunts clip.

Given the economic way he shoots and scripts his projects, Christopher Nolan doesn’t bother with deleted scenes.  The Dark Knight Rises was a whopping 2 hours and 45 minutes, so it is hard to believe that anything was left on the cutting room floor.  However, Nuke the Fridge hears different.  Their sources say that there will be a director’s cut on the Dark Knight Rises Blu-ray that includes Bane’s origin and more screentime for Ra’s Al Ghul.  This would reportedly add about 30 minutes to the film, pushing it well over three hours.

Treat this as a rumor for now, but it would coincide with previous talk about possible deleted scenes.  Hit the jump for more.

A new “internet trailer” for the upcoming action sequel Taken 2 has been released.  The clip is introduced by Liam Neeson himself who, sitting in a dark room, warns us interneters that if we don’t watch the trailer he’ll come for us and, naturally, he’ll find us. The trailer features quite a bit of new footage, and I’m starting to get the feeling that Taken 2 will be even more of a bloodbath than the first film.  Neeson rampage seems to know no bounds, especially when you kidnap his wife.

Hit the jump to watch the new trailer.  Directed by Olivier Megaton, the film also stars Maggie Grace, Famke Janssen, and Rade Šerbedžija.  Taken 2 opens on October 5th.

We’ve got quite a few new posters to share this afternoon.  Briefly:

• Anna Karenina – A trio of character posters for director Joe Wright’s (Hanna) adaptation of the classic romance novel feature stars Keira Knightley, Jude Law, and Aaron Johnson.  The film opens on November 16th.
• Killing Them Softly – This UK poster for Andrew Dominik’s (The Assassination of Jesse James) crime drama is magnificently patriotic, with a gun-wielding Brad Pitt front and center.  The film opens on October 19th.
• Taken 2 – The UK poster for the Liam Neeson-fronted sequel is fairly simple, but you don’t really need anything besides Neeson and the film’s title to sell tickets.  The pic opens on October 5th.
• Deadfall – The Brazilian poster for this thriller starring Eric Bana and Olivia Wilde.  The film opens on December 7th.
• Butter – A straightforward poster for this film about the world of competitive butter-carving, starring Jennifer Garner, Olivia Wilde, Rob Corddry, and Hugh Jackman.  The film opens on October 5th.

Hit the jump to check out all the posters.

If these new images from Taken 2 didn’t do it for you, maybe seeing Liam Neeson in action in this new featurette will.  The sequel, directed by Olivier Megaton (Colombiana), puts the Mills family in the crosshairs when they vacation in Istanbul and are taken by the father of one of the kidnappers from the first film.  Mills (Neeson) hasn’t lost a step and now it looks like his wife, Lenore (Famke Janssen) and his daughter, Kim (Maggie Grace) are getting into the action a bit more.  But Rade Šerbedžija proves to be a bit more formidable than the previous gang of faceless thugs.  The film opens October 5th.  Hit the jump to check out the new featurette.

A batch of new images from the “Liam Neeson kicks more ass” action sequel Taken 2 has gone online.  In the follow-up, Neeson’s character unwisely takes his family on a European vacation, only to find himself and his wife (Famke Janssen) taken hostage by the family members of the random henchmen that Neeson brutally murdered in the first film.  These new images unsurprisingly show Neeson being a badass, and we also get a few shots of Janssen and Maggie Grace running around.  At least everyone’s getting some healthy cardio in whilst fleeing from scary guys with guns.

Hit the jump to check out the images.  Directed by Olivier Megaton, Taken 2 opens on October 5th.

A new international trailer for Taken 2 has landed online.  As with the other trailers, this teases exactly what audiences want from the sequel: another “taken” scenario in which Liam Neeson is forced to be a badass.  The first film’s simple premise and international setting made for a fun actioner, and setting up the family members of all the men Neeson so quickly dispatched with in the first film as the sequel’s villains is an exciting angle.

Hit the jump to check out the new trailer.  The film also stars Famke Janssen, Maggie Grace, and Rade Serbedzija.  Taken 2 opens on October 5th.