If Liam Neeson isn’t careful, he’s going to turn into Bruce Willis. The “Die Hard” star has spent the last few years pretty much saying yes to any action script that crosses his desk, resulting in a string of movies that essentially go straight to VOD, while his star power continues to fade. Neeson has been better about selecting pulpier action movies, but a few wrong choices and he could be in the same boat as Willis. Certainly, his latest movie sounds fairly uninspired.
The film, which has the on-the-nose title of “Retribution,” will see Neeson playing a family man (natch), who is driving around with his family, only to discover a bomb has been strapped to his car, and if he doesn’t follow the demands of the unknown assailant, he’ll be exploded. So, it basically sounds like a cross between “Speed” and “Taken” (feel free to use that one, marketing and sales team!), which these days sounds about right for Neeson.
However, our cynicism is tempered a bit, knowing that the movie is based on Spanish director Dani de la Torre‘s Goya-winning (for Best Editing and Best Sound, it had eight nominations total) “El desconocido,” so perhaps there’s some meat on the bone with this one. Chris Salmanpour and Andrew Baldwin have penned the script, and while there’s no word yet on who will direct when production begins this fall, it won’t be Jaume Collet-Serra, though he’ll be producing for his “Unknown,” “Non-Stop,” and “The Commuter” buddy. [Deadline]