After the absolutely horrid reviews that came out concerning the recent sequel to Taken, director Olivier Megaton and Liam Neeson both came out to adamantly state that this would be the last installment of the Taken saga. Perhaps they thought this would be a repeat of Wrath of the Titans in which the prior leg was well-received and banked a lot of cash, but deflated reviews and a tepid audience reaction crushed round two of the Neeson-starrer. Who could blame them for assuming this was truly the last time Bryan Mills would show up on the big screen?
Fast forward to this weekend during which Taken 2 banked over $100 million worldwide with half that coming from domestic audiences. The reception was that of ‘this is everything Bourne Legacy lacked’ and that was enough to give the movie one of the highest grossing opening weekends to ever hit the month of October ($49.5 million.) Immediately, it was assumed that those earlier comments by the franchise star were void because this movie only cost a few dimes to make ($45 million) yet out-grossed every single action film since The Dark Knight Rises hit theaters back in July. That is more money than Total Recall, The Bourne Legacy, The Expendables 2, and even the recent hit Looper.
Today’s update that a third Taken film is alive comes from an interview Hollywood.com had with Robert Mark Kamen. Kamen is a frequent collaborator with Luc Besson and his associated films through Europa with his hands on everything from the The Transporter trilogy to The Fifth Element. In other words, what he has to say in very meaningful and not just the wishful thinking of some random writer looking for his next gig. This is what he offered up in the one-on-one:
“We didn’t start talking about [Taken 3] until we saw the numbers. But then we said, ‘Oh, okay. I think we should do a third one.’ And Fox wants us to do a third one.”
Translation: Money talks. He went on to say that the next installment will likely go in another direction, but considering this thing has only been gestating for a few days, it is safe to say that is based on a whim and everything is very much fluid at the moment.