Not that anyone can truly step into Liam Neeson's shoes, but somebody's got to do it for NBC's upcoming Taken TV series. Alex Graves (Game of Thrones) is on board to direct the prequel's pilot episode, and now Vikings star Clive Standen has been cast as a young Bryan Mills, long before he proved incapable of keeping his family safe from regularly being kidnapped.
NBC has already ordered the series to order, so this thing is definitely happening. Luc Besson, who wrote and produced all three movies, is exec-producing with Alexander Cary (Homeland) writing the scrips. They'll center on Mills as he joins the Emergency Covert Action Team, which is the elite squad we've seen in the movies in brief glimpses.
What's interesting is that the show presumably won't be about someone being "taken" every episode, so we'll get to see Mills put his particular set of skills to use doing something else. [THR]
