After recently wrapping the Liam Neeson sequel “Taken 2,” it appears the wonderfully-named director Olivier Megaton (“Transporter 3”) has been bitten by the abduction genre bug, and has quickly set up plans for another similar thriller, this time located on the streets of Los Angeles.
Emjag Productions, Stone Village, Battleplan Productions, Film 360 and Dro Entertainment announced today that Megaton will direct the independent actioner “Land of the Living,” scripted by Sean Gullette and based off the British novel by Nicci French (the pseudonym for husband-and-wife duo Nicci Gerard and Sean French). The film follows a young female ad exec, Abbie Devereaux, who is abducted on L.A. streets and manages to escape without police intervention, and finds herself – surprise, surprise – eager to inflict some much-wanted retribution upon her would-be killer.
It may come as a shock, but Luc Besson's name is nowhere near this project, although Megaton's previous film, the Zoe Saldana-starring “Columbiana,” which Besson produced, seemingly endowed the director with all the necessary elements to go off and do it alone. Really, “Land of the Living” sounds like something Ashley Judd would've turned out in the late 90s, but then again, “Taken” faced similar criticisms before it was released and proved us all wrong. Who knows, maybe Megaton will give his female lead more to do in this film than he did, frustratingly, with Saldana in their project together.
