When it was reported back in April that Maggie Grace would be returning for Taken 2, I began to have bad flashbacks to the second season of 24. While it was thrilling when Kiefer Sutherland had to save Elisha Cuthbert from evil captors in the first run, when it happened a second time it was uninspired and ridiculous. Now plot details have come out about the Olivier Megaton-directed sequel and, fortunately they're actually doing the complete opposite.
THR has learned that Rade Sherbedgia, whom folks might now as Boris 'The Blade' Yurinov in Snatch, the jacket-appreciating homeless man in Batman Begins and the Russian general in X-Men: First Class, has signed on to play the central villain of the new movie as well as some new information about the story. Sherbedgia will play a man named Murad, who is actually the father of the kidnapper Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) kills in the first movie. Exacting his revenge, Murad takes both Mills and his wife (Famke Janssen) hostage, leaving their daughter (Grace) to save them. The film was written by Robert Mark Kamen and Luc Besson.
While I am glad that they aren't just repeating the same plot from the first movie, there are two things that worry me about this. The first is that it would seem Mills is no longer the central character, which is a real shame because Liam Neeson being an absolute badass is what made the first Taken work so well. Secondly, the idea of script written and produced by Luc Besson featuring a killer female lead is something we've seen about a thousand times now, most recently in this past summer's Colombiana (which I didn't particularly enjoy). Hopefully there's more here than meets the eye and Taken 2 will be filled with as much Neeson-awesomeness as the first movie.
