Liam Neeson Appears to be Jumping into The Matrix

Posted by Neil Miller (neil@filmschoolrejects.com) on August 4, 2008

Either Fox’s marketing team is getting really, really lazy, or Liam Neeson will be jumping through wormholes into The Matrix in the film Taken. Seriously, what’s with the trench-coat mafia style movie posters?

As it turns out, Taken has nothing to do with “jumping” or the Matrix, and thankfully also has nothing to do with either Keanu Reeves or Hayden Christensen. In fact, Neeson’s presence in this poster makes Taken that much more intriguing. The man is a great actor, but last time I checked he wasn’t much of a badass. Then again, I have been wrong about these things before. Look at how Heath Ledger turned out in The Dark Knight. Before that he was Casanova.

Anyway, back to this Taken situation. The film, which was written and produced by Luc Besson (The Transporter, District B13), follows the story of a former spy (Neeson) whose daughter has been kidnapped and forced into the slave trade. The folks over at IGN debuted the full trailer back in late June. You can see that below.

After seeing that trailer, I take back the comment about Liam Neeson not being a badass. This one looks like it could be a lot of fun. On top of the initial appearance, we all know that Luc Besson has a knack for delivering pulse-pounding action — and this time he has raised his game by bringing Neeson in in place of Jason Statham. As well, the film is directed by Pierre Morel, who has served as cinematographer on War, Unleashed and both of the first two Transporter films. He also directed the highly-acclaimed French action thriller District B13. With all of that power in its corner, it appears that Taken might be worth a look. Now, if they could only make a poster that doesn’t remind me of Manikin Skywalker.

Taken is scheduled to hit theaters in the U.S. on September 19th. Check out a high resolution version of the newly released poster by clicking on the littler one below.

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