Tuesday, October 6, 2015

TUESDAY NEWS DAY: "TAKEN" FROM THE MOVIES


 

I don't like to report closed deals for TV shows as news, until I'm absolutely certain that at least one episode of that series is broadcast. Then I can absorb it into the main TV Universe. But since NBC is giving this show a "straight-to-series" order, I'll take it on faith that it will come about. It better - I don't like to waste my time... much.

Luc Bresson, who wrote and produced the "Taken" movies which starred Liam Neeson, will be the executive producer of a prequel series. It will deal with Neesom's character Bryan Mills as a much younger man, showing how he gained that particular set of skills which served him well in rescuing his daughter in the first "Taken" movie.

The proposed series will be set in the Present, so there's no discussion regarding the movies being absorbed into the Toobworld Dynamic. Liam Neeson's Bryan Mills only exists in the Cineverse, while the younger version will be in Earth Prime-Time only. And never the twain shall meet.

No casting decisions have been made yet for this series and I wouldn't want to make any type of suggestion for the role of Bryan Mills - mainly to avoid the ridicule that would result if my choice proved to be so far off the mark.  Unlikely Liam Neeson will be assaying the role as he's too old for what the network envisions for the character.  (So we won't have a situation as with 'Limitless' in which Bradley Cooper will kick off the series by playing his movie character in at least one episode.)  But who knows?  Maybe out of friendship with Bresson, perhaps he might take on some other role - as a mentor to the new Bryan Mills?

Perhaps NBC is also casting an eye toward crossing the series over with one of its other shows at some point - perhaps in any one of Dick Wolf's 'Chicago' procedurals or in 'The Blacklist'?

We shall see what we shall see.....


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