One of the things that worked so well about Taken was the simplicity of the story. Man loves daughter. Daughter gets kidnapped by human traffickers in Europe. Man tears through France using a “very particular set of skills” to get daughter back. Add Liam Neeson into the equation and the film was bound to be a winner. Will the sequel turn out as well? It’s hard to tell at this point.
The fact that Liam Neeson is on board for the sequel, along with Maggie Grace and Famke Janssen does help the cause, though the premise isn’t quite as simple.The sequel which is being directed by Olivier Megaton, will have retired CIA agent Bryan Mills (Neeson) and his ex-wife Lenore (Janssen) held captive by a man named Murad (played by Rade Sherbedgia), the father of one of the kidnappers killed in the first movie. This leaves their daughter Kim (Maggie Grace) to track them down and rescue them.
Kim will apparently have a love interest in this movie, which leads us to today’s news. According to Variety Luke Grimes has been cast in the film. The site says he “will likely have to help her rescue her parents from the baddie's clutches.” That’s all we know about his part, other than that he's Kim's love interest. It’ll be interesting to see how big of a role he plays in getting Kim to her parents. At this point, we don’t even know if Maggie Grace’s character has traded in her aspirations of becoming a singer in exchanged for following in her father’s footsteps. A bit of CIA training might make her attempt to rescue them a bit more plausible, but perhaps it’ll be Grimes’ character that provides the necessary expertise to the mission.
Brothers & Sisters fans might recognize Grimes from his role as Ryan Lafferty in the ABC series.
