Taken (franchise)

Taken
	The DVD cover for the 3-film box set
Directed by	Pierre Morel (1); Olivier Megaton (2–3);
Produced by	Luc Besson
Screenplay by	Luc Besson; Robert Mark Kamen;
Starring	Liam Neeson; Maggie Grace; Famke Janssen; Leland Orser; Jon Gries; David Warshofsky;
Music by	Nathaniel Méchaly
Cinematography	Michel Abramowicz (1); Romain Lacourbas (2); Eric Kress (3);
Edited by	Frédéric Thoraval (1); Camille Delamarre; Vincent Tabaillon (2); Audrey Simonaud; Nicolas Trembasiewicz (3);
Production; company	EuropaCorp; Canal+; M6 Films; NBC
Distributed by	20th Century Fox (English territories) ; EuropaCorp (France and Worldwide) ; NBC
Release date	2008–2014
Running time	294 minutes
Country	France
Language	English
Budget	$118,000,000
Box office	$929,451,015

Taken is a series of English-language French action films, beginning with Taken in 2008. The dialogue of all three films is primarily English, and all three feature Liam Neeson as Bryan Mills. The first film received mixed reviews from critics but a positive response from audiences with commercial success, the series grossed a combined $929,451,015 worldwide.

A prequel television series based on a similar storyline and starring Clive Standen as Bryan Mills premiered in February 2017.

The series has also experienced diminishing critical reception with each successive film.

Films

Taken (2008)

A retired CIA operative named Bryan Mills crosses the globe to rescue his 17-year-old daughter after she is kidnapped by a group of Albanian smugglers while traveling in France.

Taken 2 (2012)

Mafia boss and terrorist Murad, the father of Marko, whom Bryan had killed by electrocution in the first film of the trilogy, plans to capture Bryan, who is vacationing with his family in Istanbul, and avenge his son's death.

Taken 3 (2014)

Bryan has been framed for the murder of his ex-wife, Lenore. He then sets out to clear his name by going after the real killers, while also eluding capture from U.S. authorities for which he formerly worked.

Television

Taken (2017–2018)

In September 2015, NBC ordered a Taken television series depicting a young Bryan Mills.[1] In February 2016, Vikings actor Clive Standen was announced to play the young Bryan Mills, with Alex Carey as the showrunner.[2]

Cast and crew

Cast

Characters	Films			Television series
	Taken	Taken 2	Taken 3	Taken
	Taken	Taken 2	Taken 3	Season 1	Season 2
Bryan Mills	Liam Neeson			Clive Standen
Kimberly "Kim" Mills	Maggie Grace
Lenore "Lenny" Mills-St. John	Famke Janssen
Sam Scott Gilroy	Leland Orser			Michael Irby
Mark Rem Casey	Jon Gries			James Landry Hebert
Bernie Dave Harris	David Warshofsky	D. B. Sweeney	David Warshofsky	Jose Pablo Cantillo
Jean-Claude Pitrel	Olivier Rabourdin
Marko Hoxha	Arben Bajraktaraj	Photograph
Stuart St. John	Xander Berkeley		Dougray Scott
Sheerah	Holly Valance
Amanda	Katie Cassidy
Patrice Saint-Clair	Gérard Watkins
Murad Hoxha		Rade Šerbedžija
Jamie Conrad		Luke Grimes
Inspector Durmaz		Kevork Malikyan
Inspector Franck Dotzler			Forest Whitaker
Oleg Malankov			Sam Spruell
Jimmy			Jonny Weston
Detective Smith			Dylan Bruno
Detective Garcia			Don Harvey
Detective Johnson			Al Sapienza
Christina Hart				Jennifer Beals
Cali Mills				Celeste Desjardins	Photograph
John				Gaius Charles
Asha Flynn				Brooklyn Sudano
Becca Vlasik				Monique Gabriela Curnen
Kilroy					Adam Goldberg
Santana					Jessica Camacho

Crew

Crew	Film
Crew	Taken	Taken 2	Taken 3
Director	Pierre Morel	Olivier Megaton
Writer	Luc Besson Robert Mark Kamen
Producer	Luc Besson
Music	Nathaniel Méchaly
Distributor	EuropaCorp (France) 20th Century Fox (US)

Reception

Box office performance

Film	Release date		Box office gross			Box office ranking		Budget	Reference(s)
Film	Other territories	United States	North America	Other territories	Worldwide	All time North America	All time worldwide	Budget	Reference(s)
Taken	27 February 2008	30 January 2009	$145,000,989	$81,829,579	$226,830,568	#292	#500	$25,000,000	[3]
Taken 2	7 September 2012	5 October 2012	$139,854,287	$236,287,019	$376,141,306	#318	#219	$45,000,000	[4]
Taken 3	16 December 2014	9 January 2015	$89,256,424	$237,222,717	$326,479,141	#697	#357	$48,000,000	[5][6]
Total			$373,827,507	$555,339,315	$929,451,015			$118,000,000	[7]

Critical and public response

Film	Rotten Tomatoes	Metacritic	CinemaScore
Taken	58% (170 reviews)[8]	50 (31 reviews)[9]	A−[10]
Taken 2	22% (167 reviews)[11]	45 (35 reviews)[12]	B+[10]
Taken 3	12% (115 reviews)[13]	26 (30 reviews)[14]	B+[10]

In popular culture

On January 15, 2015, to promote the American release of Taken 3, Liam Neeson starred in a short film on the show entitled Taken 4: A-Paco-Lypse on American talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live!; the short revolved around Bryan Mills helping his old friend Guillermo rescue his kidnapped dog, Paco from "Kimmel".[15]
In 2015, Liam Neeson portrayed a parody of Brian Mills in Ted 2 (credited as "Customer"), in which he shops at the supermarket Ted works at for Trix cereal, asking that no-one be sent after him due to it supposedly being "exclusively for kids", only for him to return the cereal in the post-credits scene after having been followed and attacked.
In 2017, Bryan Mills was featured in the fifth season of the web television series The Most Popular Girls in School, in which he is searching France for his daughter Kim, after she was kidnapped by a rival group of French models while representing the United States as a model herself. Liam Neeson reprises his role as Mills.

References

Andreeva, Nellie (17 September 2015). "'Taken' Prequel TV Series Ordered by NBC with Luc Besson Producing". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 18 September 2015.
Ausiello, Michael (22 February 2016). "Clive Standen Joins NBC's Taken Series". TVLine. Retrieved 22 February 2016.
"Taken (2009)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 31 March 2014.
"Taken 2 (2012)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 31 March 2014.
"Taken 3 (2015)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 26 January 2015.
Lang, Brent (7 January 2015). "Box Office: Liam Neeson and 'Taken 3' to Unseat 'The Hobbit'". Variety. Retrieved 8 January 2015.
"Taken Franchise". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 7 February 2015.
"Taken (2009)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 31 March 2014.
"Taken (2009): Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 31 March 2014.
"CinemaScore". CinemaScore. Archived from the original on 6 February 2018. Retrieved 16 November 2018.
"Taken 2 (2012)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 31 March 2014.
"Taken 2 (2012): Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 31 March 2014.
"Taken 3 (2015)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
"Taken 3 (2015): Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
Taken 4 with Liam Neeson, Guillermo & Jimmy Kimmel

External links

Official website

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.

[1] Andreeva, Nellie (17 September 2015). "'Taken' Prequel TV Series Ordered by NBC with Luc Besson Producing". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 18 September 2015.

[2] Ausiello, Michael (22 February 2016). "Clive Standen Joins NBC's Taken Series". TVLine. Retrieved 22 February 2016.

[3] "Taken (2009)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 31 March 2014.

[4] "Taken 2 (2012)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 31 March 2014.

[5] "Taken 3 (2015)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 26 January 2015.

[6] Lang, Brent (7 January 2015). "Box Office: Liam Neeson and 'Taken 3' to Unseat 'The Hobbit'". Variety. Retrieved 8 January 2015.

[7] "Taken Franchise". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 7 February 2015.

[8] "Taken (2009)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 31 March 2014.

[9] "Taken (2009): Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 31 March 2014.

[CScore-10] "CinemaScore". CinemaScore. Archived from the original on 6 February 2018. Retrieved 16 November 2018.

[11] "Taken 2 (2012)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 31 March 2014.

[12] "Taken 2 (2012): Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 31 March 2014.

[13] "Taken 3 (2015)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 9 January 2015.

[14] "Taken 3 (2015): Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 9 January 2015.

[15] Taken 4 with Liam Neeson, Guillermo & Jimmy Kimmel