Coming on the heels of the announcement from this past fall that a Taken television series is currently in development at NBC (with the original film trilogy’s co-writer and producer Luc Besson set to sit in the executive producer’s chair), many fans of the thriller series previously starring Liam Neeson as retired CIA operative Bryan Mills have been presumably left intrigued. Alexander Cary will serve as show-runner for the new modern day prequel to Besson’s blockbuster, and as such viewers can expect even more kidnapping capers and high tension rescue missions on the small screen in the near future.
For now, fans will just have to wait and see which actors will be lined up to round out the cast of the new show, and who will take on the role of young American secret service operative Mills. Ahead of any casting news, however, it is now known that the pilot episode has found a director with plenty of experience on the small screen already.
According to Deadline, Alex Graves will oversee the direction of the new NBC program’s first episode, for which he will also serve as an executive producer. Graves’ past work on mulitiple episodes of such hit television shows as Game of Thrones and Homeland certainly speak to his ability as a contemporary auteur of the small screen – and given the fact that he will be working under Cary, who serves as the current executive producer of the latter mentioned program, can only serve to tighten the production value of the pilot episode behind the scenes.
Based on the exceptional resume of all the players involved thus far, NBC might just make something out of their latest venture. If Cary, Graves, and Besson play their cards just right, and pending the crucial casting decisions yet to come over the course of the Taken pilot episode’s pre-production stage, viewers might just have reason enough to return to the eponymous thriller series sans its former star.
Even if Taken 3 was a little less than thrilling, perhaps NBC can still pull something from the property’s central protagonist’s back story that may be just as intriguing to watch as the original Taken was in theaters, back in 2008. On that note, here’s to hoping that Besson can also breathe life back into the property when the show eventually airs on network television.
Screen Rant will keep you updated on any information related to the Taken television series.
