Is 'Taken' Really Liam Neeson's 'Signature Role'?
Huh, maybe it is...
Photo: 20th Century Fox
It's been announced Liam Neeson is coming back for Taken 2, the sequel to the 2008 surprise hit featuring Neeson as Bryan Mills, a former spy that takes off for Paris to save his kidnapped daughter. However, original buzz was Neeson wanted to take some time off while producer Luc Besson wanted to shoot it this year. Names including Mickey Rourke, Ralph Fiennes, Ray Winstone, Sean Bean and Jason Isaacs were reported as potential replacements, which, if you ask me, would have been the better way to go, but that's beyond the point.
In the Deadline article reporting the news, Mike Fleming refers to Neeson's Taken character as a "signature role" which had me scratching my head. A signature role? Really? The Oscar-nominated title star of Schindler's List's signature role is as a B-movie spy that has to save the girl from "Lost" from a bunch of Albanian sex traffickers? Shocking.
There's no doubt Taken was a hit. Made for a reported $25 million it took in $226 million worldwide. Neeson's ability to draw an audience as an aging action star was also proven with the recent success of Unknown, which was made for reported $30 million and has brought in $96 million worldwide.
So is that it? Has the soon-to-be 59-year-old actor found his calling as a late term action star?
Now I'm curious to see what kind of business Taken 2 will do. Robert Mark Kamen is back to pen the script and Olivier Megaton (Transporter 3) is set to direct with plans to shoot late 2011 or early 2012 giving Neeson the time off he wants after filming Wrath of the Titans.
Of course, my biggest concern, in terms of the movie itself, is they'll somehow force a rehash of the first film and Neeson will again need to save a child/loved one/friend/whatever from being kidnapped. Maybe he'll still be doing security jobs with his friends and one of their celebrity pop stars will get snatched up. Maybe it will even be his daughter (no word on whether or not Maggie Grace is coming back). Either way it seems Megaton may be the right director for this since the Transporter series crashed and burned with his third installment, maybe he can kill this "franchise" before it even gets to its junior year.
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If a signature role is a role or film you immediately think of when given an actor's name then it could indeed be a viable candidate.
Might not be the best film on his CV, but that doesn't mean it can't be a signature one. They pretty much used it for Unknown.
Yeah, the idea just shocks me for some reason, but it's totally viable.
That's the thing though when someone mentions Liam Neeson's name to me I think of Schindler's List or even The Big Man, I have Taken on dvd but it's never the first film that pops into my head hell i even think of The Phantom Menace before it.
Signature role seems to be pretty strong term, but I understand that in recent years it is his most recognized. It is definetly one of his most financially successful roles.
I think of Schindler's List but that line,
'If you let my daughter go now, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you. ',
has become iconic. I honestly think that a lot of people think of him as a bad ass now.
I guess you could consider it a 'signature role', just as much as his roles in Schindler's List, Batman Begins or Star Wars are. I guess it also depends on which generation you are from and which movie you saw him in first. For example, I first noticed Liam Neeson in The Phantom Menace and therefore consider Qui Gon Jinn to be a signature role of his.
His signature role to me is, and probably always will be, Schindler's List, and I think that's definitely his best performance.
Qui Gon Jinn is his signature role for sure
When I hear Liam Neeson I do think Schindler List, Batman Begins, and Taken. Schindler's List is his best work. He was great as Ra's al-Ghul and Taken the line that always stick to me is his "… I will find you and I will kill you."
It's possible, yeah, but when I think "Liam Neeson", I immediately think Oskar Schindler, Qui Gon Jinn and even Aslan before I think about his role in Taken.
Though that line 'I have a very particular set of skills" is his seminal catchphrase, like "You talkin' to me" for De Niro or "You feel lucky, Punk?" for Eastwood.
no no no, Schindler's List is his signature!
It's his most recognized role, probably more so than Qui Gon on the Phantom Menace. Personally, Schindlers List would be the first to come to me whenever I think Liam Neeson. While he was also recognizable in The Phantom Menace, on Taken, he had the stage all to himself and it really sold him to audiences as a viable action star.
Taken was so much fun. Liam had some great lines in that one ("It's just a flesh wound!"). Bring on the sequel!
Ever since Harrison Ford was getting too old for action, neeson filled that role
For me, Liam Neeson's signature role will always be as the title character in "Michael Collins." The scene where he instructs a ragtag group of Irish rebels on how they will go about terrorizing the British and then yells "STAND UP!"…I always get chills.
However, his role as Oskar Schindler will always be an extremely close second.
Thems the facts
The thing about Neeson is that among the younger generation, he became really popular following Taken, but among those young viewers, few of them know of Schindler's List, because today's generation doesn't watch "old" movies as much. So technically, saying "The star from Schindler's List" won't be so marketable as "The badass from Taken". I still think he's pretty popular for playing Qui-Gon and Ra's Al Ghul though.
Maybe yes, because in Taken, it was all Liam Neeson. And i bacame a fan of his after watching Taken. Now i am curious about Michael Collins and Five Minutes of Heaven…