With Taken 2 more than doubling the original's opening, pulling in close to $50 million in its opening weekend, it comes as no surprise that screenwriter Robert Mark Kamen (The Karate Kid) has already started talks for you guessed it.... Taken 3! Kamen told Hollywood.com: "We didn't start talking about it 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." In the original Taken, Liam Neeson plays a retired CIA agent who travels across Europe and uses his "special set of skills" to save his daughter (Maggie Grace) who was kidnapped on a trip to be sold into prostitution. The sequel finds Liam Neeson and his wife (Famke Janssen) in a spot of bother as they are also taken in a revenge plot formulated by the kidnappers in the original movie. It’s a good job Neeson doesn’t have a dog because if he did, he had better put a heavy duty lock on his kennel. Quite sensibly Kamen also mentioned that there are not many more option in terms of people to be taken in the third movie, so Taken 3 should be going in a slightly different direction.
The success of the Taken franchise has certainly taken Hollywood by surprise, bearing in mind that many insiders thought the original movie would be a “straight to DVD” special. Producer Luc Besson (Leon, Lockout) and Kamen have certainly created a high octane, entertaining series of movies that audiences enjoy. Taken 2 is currently in cinemas now and also stars Rade Sherbedgia and Luke Grimes.
