'Taken' prequel: NBC orders TV series based on Liam Neeson movies

By Lorraine Caballero, Christian Post Contributor Saturday, September 19, 2015

"Taken" is about to conquer the television world as NBC has ordered a prequel series based on Liam Neeson's famous action-suspense movie.

NBC has picked up Taken for a prequel show focusing on the earlier days of retired CIA agent Bryan Mills, Liam Neeson's character in the original movie franchise. Taken writer and producer Luc Besson will be an executive director in the upcoming NBC series, according to USA Today.

Besson is known for the films "La Femme Nikita" and "The Transporter," which have both been adapted as TV series, the report adds.

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The Taken television series will feature a younger version of Detective Mills, but the setting will still be in the modern times. It will also focus on how Mills became a skilled detective and how his earlier experiences shaped his present character. In the movie, Neeson's character is a CIA operative who launched his own mission to save his kidnapped daughter, Business Insider reports.

NBC is reportedly still looking for a writer for the prequel, and the cast is yet to be announced. The report about the Taken prequel comes in the wake of the termination of another straight-to-series order for the revival of "Coach." Networks are resorting to straight-to-order series in a bid to gain traction over other cable and streaming services, the report explains.

The upcoming prequel drama for Taken will be handled by Universal Television and EuropaCorp, the producers of the original movie that pushed Liam Neeson to his action star status.

The TV schedules from 2015 to 2016 are sprinkled here and there with TV adaptation of some movies. Among these series are "Uncle Buck" on ABC, "Behind Enemy Lines" and "Minority Report" on Fox, "Training Day," "Rush Hour" and "Limitless" on CBS, and "The Notebook" and "Friday the 13th" on The CW. NBC is also working on a remake of the series "Hart to Hart," the report details.

The number of episodes to be aired in the Taken prequel is still unconfirmed. The schedule of the Taken series is also still under wraps as of now.