Thursday, August 6
Academy Award-nominated actor Liam Neeson's star is (finally) on the rise. Though a Hollywood stalwart since the success of 1999's Darkman, Neeson has only flirted with stardom over the years. Neeson won over critics as Oskar Schindler in Schindler's List and collected a fan following thanks to roles in Star Wars: Episode I and Batman Begins. However, despite these notable roles, Neeson has never quite made it into the upper echelons of leading male actors.
Now, thanks to the surprise success of Taken, in which Neeson played a retired CIA agent who tracks down the slave traders who kidnapped his daughter, Neeson is set to star in a rapid succession of high-profile movies. Neeson will portray Zeus in the remake of the Ray Harryhausen classic Clash of the Titans, and is preparing to star in a big-budget adaptation of TV's The A-Team, in which he will play the team's leader, Col. John "Hannibal" Smith. After that, Neeson may be donning a beard and a top hat to bring Abraham Lincoln to life in a Steven Spielberg biopic.
The latest news has Neeson in negotiations to star in Unknown White Male, a thriller being directed by Jaume Collet-Serra (Orphan). Based on the novel Out of My Head by Didier Van Cauwelaert, Unknown White Male tells the story of a doctor who awakes from a coma to find that he has been replaced by a sinister imposter. Joel Silver is producing with Leonard Goldberg and shooting is scheduled to begin in January in Berlin.
Posted 8/6/2009 by reelz
Related: Liam Neeson | Darkman | Schindler's List | Taken | A-Team | Clash of the Titans