Liam Neeson Gets Fat Paycheck To Return For 'Taken 3'

Liam Neeson kicked up a fuss before he finally decided to return for Taken 2, but it worked for everybody once he did. Even though it was a pretty terrible movie overall (the first one's pretty overrated, too), Neeson put his particular set of skills to good use and hauled in roughly $375M, surpassing Taken's total from a couple of years earlier. That got 20th Century Fox talking about a third film pretty quickly, and now we know Neeson will be back, and he's got a nice chunk of change to do it.

A deal is close to finalizing that would give Neeson a whopping $20M to return as ex-CIA agent Bryan Mills in Taken 3, this after it took $15M to lure him back for the last film. Robert Mark Kamen and Luc Besson will again co-write the script, which will probably involve another careless family member rescued from nameless foreign thugs. Although to be fair, Kamen said last year that the new story would go in a different direction, lest Bryan be forced to rescue the family dog.

No director is in place yet, but it will more than likely be another Besson prodigy, just as Pierre Morel and Olivier Megaton were. Deals are currently being struck with Maggie Grace and Famke Janssen to reprise their roles as captive #1 and captive #2. [Deadline]