Review: 'Taken 3' starring Liam Neeson and Forest Whitaker

Well, after two formulaic  Taken flicks of grizzled old Liam Neeson kicking ass like a spry young chicken, those looking for something new have finally got their wish. Taken 3 breaks the mold for nigh indestructible badass ex-CIA agent Bryan Mills; there's nobody "taken' for once and instead of punching guys in the neck he actually has to work out the pieces of a mystery, one that has cost him something dear. Be careful what you wish for because watching Bryan follow clues is pretty lame when all anybody wants to see is him dispatching bad guys.

The first Taken worked because, hey, this is gentle soul Liam Neeson breaking a bunch of dudes in half to save his daughter. That's just cool to the ultimate degree. It should have ended there, though, and the sequel showed just how brittle the whole premise really was. Another family member gets swiped and tough guy Bryan is looking like the least protective parent ever. The only upside was the ending, which seemed like the perfect setup for an explosive wrap-up to the trilogy. It concluded with a vow that a vanquished foe's sons would continue the vendetta forever. So surely that's where Taken 3 goes, right? Nope. Instead it has practically zero continuity with the prior flicks...except that Bryan seems to have a knack for beating up anybody of questionable nationality. Instead much of the focus is on the personal connections between Bryan and his family, although these bonds hardly resonate because we know that in the end none of it matters; punching things does.

This time around Bryan is playing the good father to Kim (Maggie Grace) and the hovering ex-husband to Lenore (Famke Janssen), a fact which doesn't make her new husband Stuart (Dougray Scott) happy. The two former lovebirds can't stay away from one another, but when Bryan comes home to find her murdered, he becomes suspect numero uno and the target of top cop, Detective Dotzler (Forest Whitaker). Dotzler's a smart cookie; we know this because he plays with a rubber band and carries a chess piece. Seriously. The cops love doughnuts, too. This is a Luc Besson flick and subtlety is not one of his strengths.

So it's up to Bryan to clear his name, find the real culprit, and hit them in the nose really really hard.  The path to getting there is incredibly dull, though, with the action taking a serious backseat to Bryan's clue finding and personal issues. Kim is not only dealing with grief but also a sudden pregnancy, and Bryan is wondering how time flew by so fast. Awwww. Meanwhile the cops bumble around, including Dotzler, always one step behind Bryan and never really impeding his search. Is this not sounding like a Taken film to you? Try watching it. There are brief spells of action that allow the awesomely-named director Olivier Megaton to blow stuff up and flip cars, but they feel strangely disconnected from the rest of the film. Maybe it's the boring California locale. Bryan Mills and his "particular set of skills" were made for the grimy Slavic underbelly, not the sunbaked beaches of Cali. It's hard to figure exactly what Besson and co-writer Robert Mark Kamen were thinking. Surely they had to know this wouldn't be a satisfying payoff. But maybe that was the point? The die-hard fans will surely demand there be a Taken 4 to give Bryan a proper send-off with a proper body count.

 Rating: 2 out of 5

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Liam Neeson is a Wanted Fugitive in First Trailer for 'Taken 3'...er, 'Tak3n'

At the end of Taken 2, badass ex-CIA dude Bryan Mills was targeted by the father of a man he killed in the first movie. Before Mills could get his ultimate revenge, the father promised that his other sons would be seeking payback. The endless cycle of violence continues now in Taken 3 (or Tak3n), but instead of the usual "I will find you" nonsense we're used to, Mills will find himself on the run from the law.

The first trailer for Taken 3 has arrived and it actually looks like they're trying to do something a bit differently for once. Neeson is back as Bryan Mills and, after what appears to be a rekindled romance with his wife, is forced to go on the run when he's framed for murder. Forest Whitaker is a new addition to the cast as the officer assigned to bringing Mills to justice. Good luck with that. Maggie Grace also returns as Mills' oft-distressed daughter, Kim. 

Luc Besson protegee Oliver Megaton returns to direct Taken 3, which opens January 9th 2015, right where it belongs. Neeson has said this would be the end but that's exactly what he said after the last two movies.


TAKEN 3 Official Trailer (2015) Liam Nesson by Trailersstv

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Review: Lucy starring Scarlett Johannson and Morgan Freeman

The average person only users 10% of their brain, an interesting little trivia tidbit we’ve all heard before. It’s been proven incorrect by science but that’s beside the point…we don’t need science for our movie plots to work (I’m looking at you Jurassic Park franchise), also the film has a clever way to explain why this is different from the traditional 10% as they present it that we only use 10% of our brains capacity, simply meaning that we all use all of the parts of our brain, just not to the level or efficiency we could, similar to how my muscles have the same potential as a bodybuilders but are being held back by my comical aversion to physical activity. Enough preamble, let’s get to some plot, shall we?

Lucy (Scarlett Johannson) is a student in Taiwan with some questionable social circles. After being forced to deliver a suitcase to a crime lord by her obviously scummy boyfriend (seriously, in a movie with a telekinetic woman the fact that she’s dating this dude is the most unrealistic aspect), Lucy is kidnapped and drugged. She wakes to find that the bad guys have surgically implanted a bag of C4b3h2 (that’s a total guess, but it was something along those lines), a brand new designer drug, in her intestines. She’s then given a passport and ticket along with three other unwilling mules who will all be flown to different parts of Europe to distribute the drug. Unfortunately for Lucy the low level goons didn’t get the memo about a plastic bag of highly potent drugs being put in her stomach, so they proceed to kick her in the gut when she’s shackled in a holding room. The bag breaks releasing the drug in extremely high doses into her system, which causes severe toxicity leading to an almost immediate and painful death. Wait, that doesn’t seem right…OH, my mistake, she doesn’t die; she’s given superpowers as the drug unlocks the potential of her brain allowing her to use a higher and higher percentage. During all of this the film is intercut with scenes of Professor Samuel Norman speaking at a lecture on the potential of the human brain. Highlights include a step by step listing of possible abilities that come with a corresponding percentage, things like at 20% you can control your body completely, at 30% you can control other people, at 40% you can control machines and so on and so on.  Lucy becomes fixated on retrieving the rest of the drug packets and unlocking the full 100% as well as seeking revenge on the people that did this to her.

Scarlett Johannson is the shining light of this flick and it’s a good thing because without her there would be nothing. She actually gets to stretch some acting legs, believe it or not, as she goes from a convincingly trashy and unintelligent party girl to an intelligent robot on a mission. Maybe robot isn’t the best description for why her performance is something to see, as she begins starting to use more and more of her brain she adapts a performance style that seems very similar to how autism is usually portrayed in film with a far off look in her eyes that comes close to a blank expression but is different in a very slight way that makes you understand that she’s just got a lot more going on inside her head. The film plays quickly too, once the drugs enter her system the movie doesn’t slow down until the credits roll, which ends up being a saving grace since much of the movie makes little sense and doesn’t deliver on many of the promises made in the trailer. There is quite a bit of action but very little involves Lucy, once she becomes more powerful her interactions with the bad guys consist of waving her hand to make them all pass out, or levitate. There are some good gun battles involving the side characters and she does get to take the wheel in a car chase that Michael Bay would be jealous of, but that’s about it as far as ScarJo is concerned.

I think “weird” is probably the most apt description of the movie that I can come to, it’s not bad per say, it’s just very odd for the most part. I guess this is par for the course when you’re talking about a Luc Besson movie. The guy is heralded for his action and a good percentage of his films are widely enjoyed but there’s always an under belly of odd in his flicks. Look at The Professional, probably his most lauded film and for good reason, but at the base it’s a film about a hitman teaching his craft to a pre-teen girl whom he may or may not be in love with. To illustrate what I mean, one of the main “what?” aspects is how he intercuts scenes of nature to illustrate what’s going on in the story…so when Lucy is about to be kidnapped by the gangsters the film switches to a scene of an animal being stalked by a cheetah. Again, not a huge deal but it does take you out of the moment completely. Past that there are a number of logic jumps and missing points, such as how there’s zero learning curve with her new abilities and no “What’s happening to me?!?” moment, I guess that can be chalked up to the increase in understanding and brainpower or even something as simple as not slowing the film down. Lastly there’s the weird forced romantic angle between Lucy and the French cop who she’s paired up with in the second half of the film. Speaking of, the fact that she becomes a ruthless killer and breaks any number of laws including stealing drugs from the police, makes the ask no questions relationship between Lucy and the cop even more odd. I can forgive this kind of stuff with a movie like Crank that is, in no way, trying to be something serious, but Lucy is trying to say something profound…at least I think it is, honestly it’s kind of hard to tell. Let’s just say that the beginning and the end of the movie show a look at time from now to the first Neanderthal so at least the impression of something deep and large is there.

With the number of large budget, high-quality films out right now there’s no way I can, in good conscience, recommend you go to the theater for Lucy. It isn’t without its merits, and I do think some will enjoy it, but it’s strictly a rental. ScarJo is beautiful and talented so if that’s what you’re yearning for this weekend I’d say renting Under the Skin is a far better choice. 

2 Out of 5 Guttenbergs

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Scarlett Johansson Rips Through Paris in Car Chase Scene from 'Lucy'

The Professional, La Femme Nikita, The Fifth Element, Adele Blanc Sec....Luc Besson loves his butt-kicking femme fatales and has basically built a career bringing them to the screen, and that doesn't even include the films he's written (like Colombiana) featuring tough as nails ladies. Will Scarlett Johansson be his next great one in the sci-fi action flick, Lucy? Take a look at the latest clip and judge for yourself.

Johansson brings the sexy and the attitude as a drug mule who accidentally digests the drug she's carrying and becomes gifted with incredible powers, powers that give her the ability to use her full brain capacity. So what does that mean? Increased knowledge absorption, telepathy, telekinesis, and apparently the ability to push around inept French cops. Basically this rather long clip has everything we've come to expect from Besson. Energetic but generic soundtrack backing a car chase through the Paris streets, the aforementioned inept cop, and one pouty-lipped heroine with a mean streak.  Sign me up.

Lucy hits theaters on July 25th.


Scarlett Johansson's Incredible Driving Scene From "Lucy" by celebritywire

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Scarlett Johansson Uses Her Brain in 'Lucy' Red Band Clip

One of the cooler things about Scarlett Johansson's performance as Black Widow is that she's playing one of the few Avengers without any powers. She has to rely on other skills to get by, and by extension Johansson has to be more subtle than most of her co-stars who have all sorts of CGI fireworks accompanying them. But in Luc Besson's new action flick, Lucy, Johansson will have all the superpowers she can handle and some kickass guns, too.

Basically resembling a sci-fi La Femme Nikita, Lucy has Johansson as a drug mule who gains extraordinary abilities after she absorbs the substance into her system. It allows her to use more than 10% of her brain and as the capacity grows, so do her powers, which she uses to exact bloody revenge on those who held her captive.

A return to form for Luc Besson or just another high-profile dud? We'll find out when Lucy opens on July 25th.

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Review: 'Brick Mansions' Starring Paul Walker, RZA, and David Belle

A few months ago, the arrival of Brick Mansions would have only meant something to fans of the original film, Luc Besson's rather incredible District B13. But now the film has been given added weight due to the passing of its star, Paul Walker, making this his final completed work. It's impossible not to get a little teary-eyed at the sight of him in the action-genre he became such a part of. Sure, he'll appear to some degree in next year's Fast & Furious 7 but this is it as far as finished features go. And that only makes it that much sadder the film is a total disaster, one that will also have those District B13 fans crying for an entirely different reason.

The original film eschewed traditional martial arts action for the parkour craze that was sweeping the world at the time, led by star and parkour legend David Belle. There was so much wall-jumping and energetic acrobatics, Belle and his co-stars made Jackie Chan look like he has been standing still his entire career. Because of that, there was concern over this remake toning things down to accommodate Walker who, whatever his talents may be, is not the most fluid of screen combatants. Besson, back penning the screenplay for this one with protégée Camille Delamarre directing, recognizes this and tries to frame the story as more of a comedy than a straight-up brawler. But without the one thing that made the story work, the parkour, there's nothing of note here for the film to hang its hat on.

Besson has always had a...well, let's call it a tenuous grip on class and social issues in his movies, but Brick Mansions dumbs them down to crazy levels. The slums of Paris are replaced by a militarized ghetto version of future Detroit that looks a lot like modern day Detroit.  Things haven't gotten so bad that the city's crime-ridden housing project, known as Brick Mansions, has been cut off from the city by a giant barrier manned by armed soldiers. Rich white fat cats plot ways to wring every dollar from the bankrupt city, and the evil mayor's plan is to simply raze Brick Mansions to the ground and start some high-end housing. Wu-Tang Clan member RZA juggles a sketchy Jamaican accent as Tremaine, the chief drug kingpin ruling the city (wait for it) "with an iron fist". The obvious nod to RZA's directorial debut is just one of many such distracting script contrivances. Does RZA actually use the phrase "Cash rules everything around me"? Yes he does. Walker plays Damien, an honorable cop living in the shadow of his slain father, who is recruited to bust into Brick Mansions and put Tremain down. But to do it, he'll need the help of Lino (the returning David Belle), the slum's vigilante hero. Lino is motivated to help when Tremain kidnaps his spicy Latina ex-girlfriend. To make matters worse, she's tied up to a nuclear weapon which will be launched into the city unless a ransom is paid.

So clearly, this isn't to be taken all that seriously, which is good because the script is laughably atrocious. They try to make some campy headway out of the mismatched cop pairing, with Damien watching in slack-jawed awe as Lino soars through the air and slithers through narrow crevasses with impossible ease. Parkour was a big deal when the first film came out, and Belle was one of the guys who created the art form, but other than an amazingly kinetic opening sequence he doesn't get a chance to show much. Most of the action is of a pace Walker can handle, shot unimaginatively by Delamarre. Not that a film like this demands a lot of critical thinking from the audience, but the conclusion is a boondoggle of implausibilities where all character logic goes out the window like one of Belle's signature leaps.

And it's especially sad because we all want to see Walker's final films show him in the best possible light. We want him to go out on top, don't we? There's already a discomfort in that his final two movies will be chock full of speeding car wrecks. Can't he at least go out in something that will be fun for audiences to watch him in? Unfortunately, Brick Mansions needs to have a wrecking ball taken to it.

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Scarlett Johansson Uses Brains and Brawn in Trailer for Luc Besson's 'Lucy'

This is the year of Scarlett Johansson kicking ass and taking names. Audiences around the world have already begun to see what she can do in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, namely beating guys up and looking sexy while doing it, and this summer she'll do it again for Luc Besson in sci-fi action flick, Lucy.

The first trailer for Lucy has been released and...look, this fits right in with the cinematic oeuvre of Besson, the guy best known for La Femme Nikita, The Professional, and The Fifth Element, all films with tough female leads. Johansson plays a woman forced to be a drug mule, only to have the nasty blue gunk ooze into her system. Morgan Freeman is nice enough to inform us that it allows her to use more of her brain capacity than the average human, allowing for telekinesis, clairvoyance, and a resistance to pain. Unfortunately it also seems to be doing something to her emotions.

Honestly, this looks like the best thing Besson has done in awhile, and Johansson is firmly establishing herself as the top female action star in Hollywood. Maybe we can get her and Gina Carano to team up some day?  Lucy hits theaters on August 8th.

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Scarlett Johansson is Luc Besson's 'Lucy' in First Look Photo

Say what you want about Luc Besson, and certainly there is plenty to say about his mediocre movies of late, but he knows how to write some kick-ass female characters. And this summer he's going to give us one more in the action flick, Lucy, and he's got none other than Black Widow bringing the pain.

EW has the first look at Scarlett Johansson in Lucy, which starts off sounding like Maria Full of Grace but winds up sounding like Chronicle. She stars as a drug mule who ingests the substance somehow, only to discover that it's given her superhuman powers. She becomes impervious to pain and gains telekinetic and telepathic abilities. Pretty cool.

Between this and next week's Captain America: The Winter Soldier it's going to be a lot of Johansson punching and shooting things. Lucy opens on August 8th.

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New Trailer for 'Brick Mansions' Starring Paul Walker and RZA

A new trailer has been released for Brick Mansions, a remake of the parkour fighting flick District B13, which we have frequently referred to as one of the best action flicks in recent memory. The film is also the final completed performance by the late Paul Walker, starring as an undercover cop who teams up with a local to bust inside a crime lord's high-rise HQ and find a weapon of mass destruction. Think a less brutal version of The Raid: Redemption and you have a pretty good idea of what to expect. There have been some changes to the story by adding a revenge element and tweaking the fighting for Walker's sake, but for the most part this looks very faithful.

RZA co-stars along with David Belle, the parkour king and star of the original film. Directed by Camille Delamarre with a script by Luc Besson, Brick Mansions opens April 25th.

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Review: '3 Days to Kill' Starring Kevin Costner, Amber Heard, and Hailee Steinfeld

If there's one thing McG and Luc Besson will never be recognized for, it's subtlety. Hot babes, fast cars, shoot outs, and questionable attempts at humor are what they traffic in. It wasn't always that way for Besson, director of genre classics like The Professional and La Femme Nikita, but now he produces artificial popcorn flavoring like The Transporter and Taken. But there's something endearing about Besson's sloppy Euro-action movies, and for all its many....oh so many flaws...3 Days to Kill is sort of enjoyable for the performances within.

And by performances I mean a Kevin Costner who seems totally perplexed by the strange comedy-espionage world he's stumbled into, and Amber Heard vamping it up in a variety of skin tight outfits (and odd locales) that are worth the price of admission alone. It's not fair to say that Besson tosses Costner into the Taken blender because 3 Days to Kill is only partly an action movie; the good majority of it resembles a sitcom where the clueless dad tries to reconnect with his rebellious teen. It makes for a strange brew, and one that's too ridiculous to be boring.

Costner, with his unkempt beard and collection of scarfs plays Ethan, a CIA operative who has grown tired of the job. After a run-in with the ludicrously-named, but also sort of awesome villain known as The Albino goes belly-up when Ethan passes out, he's diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. With only months left to live, he decides to hang up his gun and reconnect with his ex-wife (Connie Nielsen) and estranged daughter Zoey (Hailee Steinfeld), who are now living in Paris. The wife never liked his job, and Zoey has no clue about it, but just as Ethan is starting to get comfortable he's roped back into business by an oversexed honeypot named Vivi (Heard). He refuses, even somehow shaking her flirtatious charms...

"You're not my type", he says.

"I'm everybody's type", she comes back.

She's not wrong, but it takes the offer of an experimental cure to get Ethan back for one last murder mission, taking out an arms dealer named The Wolf. The cure causes Ethan to black out at inconvenient moments, like every time he's about to nab the bad guy. But what makes him even more delirious is the presence of an African family of squatters who have taken over his home randomly. The youngest son is always trying to give him high-fives, which Ethan is WAY too cool for. In an effort to make good with Zoey he buys a purple bike nobody wants to ride, and then there's the issue of her dating and having hair troubles and the big dance is coming up and what is a trained killer to do!?!? Why not torture some sage parenting advice out of the guys he's been hired to beat up? An unfortunate Italian accountant is forced to give up his recipe for marinara or face further brutality; while another insider (Marc Androni) keeps getting phone calls from Ethan on how to raise a daughter. Speaking of phones, Zoey sets Icona Pop's "I Don't Care" as Ethan's ringtone and it goes off at the worst times imaginable. Stealth apparently isn't in his job description.

It's over-the-top and nonsensical but Besson and co-writer Adi Hasak know exactly what they're doing. Some of the jokes about "cowboy" Americans and France's silly governmental system are lifted from Besson's old playbook (they can be heard in The Familymost recently), and McG directs with his usual emphasis on action rather than emotion. Costner fits comfortably as a bad ass despite his weathered, beaten body, which only makes his bewilderment during the sentimental moments all the more believable. The film does veer a little too heavily into schmaltz, especially when Ethan starts offering up dance lessons and teaching Zoey how to ride a bike. The mix of humor and violence isn't always on-point, and the tone is more than a little disorienting. Hardly one of Besson's best but far from his worst (ever seen Wasabi? Or From Paris with Love?), 3 Days to Kill is entertaining enough, ironically, for those with some time to kill.

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New Trailer for '3 Days to Kill' Starring Kevin Costner and Amber Heard

So the last time we saw Kevin Costner in the realm of secret agents and espionage didn't work out so well, with Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit tanking and probably ruining any hope for a Costner-led spinoff. But maybe he'll find better success with 3 Days to Kill, an action-thriller spawned by the unholy union of writer/producer Luc Besson and director McG. Basically, expect lots of old dudes kicking ass while buxom babes (Amber Heard, in this case) hang off their arms and explosions go off randomly in the background.

A new trailer for the film is online, and it actually doesn't look too bad minus all the sentimental hokum. Costner plays a former agent with a terminal disease, who takes one last mission in the hopes of finding a cure. Meanwhile he's also trying to reconnect with his estranged daughter, played by Hailee Steinfeld.

3 Days to Kill opens February 21st.

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First Trailer for '3 Days to Kill' with Kevin Costner and Amber Heard

When Luc Besson doesn't have the time to fully indulge in another one of his specific brand of Euro action flicks like Taken or Colombiana, he has a large stable of interchangeable directors who can do it for him. Those guys include Olivier Megaton, Pierre Morel, and now McG has picked up the mantle for 3 Days to Kill, a movie about an aging hitman. And nope, Liam Neeson is nowhere to be found.

Instead it's Kevin Costner, Pa Kent himself, as a government wetworks agent who learns he has a terminal disease and quits the job to try and connect with his daughter, played by Hailee Steinfeld. Amber Heard is his mysterious handler  and when she makes him an offer for a life-saving cure if he completes one last dangerous mission ("one last mission" alert!!!!), he accepts and stuff gets blown up real good, along with plenty of Costner punching things.  Overall, this looks pretty generic and too much like Taken redux, but if it leads to more Costner that's not such a bad thing.

3 Days to Kill opens February 21st.


Three Days to Kill - Trailer by Daily Movies Switzerland

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Fifth 'Bourne' Film Slated for August 2015; Justin Lin Confirmed to Direct

Jeremy Renner's debut as the latest mind-altered super agent in The Bourne Legacy may not have set the world on fire, but it was enough to get Universal moving on a fifth film in the franchise. While there were some early rumors of Paul Greengrass possibly returning, those were replaced last month when Fast & Furious 6 helmer Justin Lin was reportedly close to signing on. Now the ink is dry and Universal has added the film to the crowded 2015 slate.

Lin will direct the untitled fifty Bourne movie for release August 14th 2015. Renner will return as Aaron Cross, and it's unclear if any of the other cast members will be joining him. Don't expect to see series scribe and 'Legacy' director Tony Gilroy tagging along, either, as he has totally moved on from the franchise.

As of now that places Bourne in a showdown with The Smurfs 3, so parents can send their kids to that while going to watch Renner kick some butt. 

Universal has also dated Luc Besson's next action flick, titled Lucy, for August 8th 2014. Starring Scarlett Johansson and Morgan Freeman, the film centers on "a woman accidentally caught in a dark deal who turns the tables on her captors and transforms into a merciless warrior evolved beyond human logic."

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Scarlett Johansson to lead Luc Besson's sci-fi film 'Lucy'

A look back at the extensive career of French director Luc Besson(The Professional) and it becomes clear he's always had a knack for action films with strong female leads. A number of great actresses have passed in front of Besson's camera over the years: Natalie Portman, Milla Jojovich, and Michelle Yeoh to name just a few of tough, butt-kicking ladies. Now as he prepares for his next effort, a sci-fi film titled Lucy, he's landed an Avenger to take on the title role.

Scarlett Johansson, will take a break from avenging as Black Widow to star in Besson's film, which he will write and direct. The story follows a young woman becomes a drug mule, only to ingest the drug and gain superpowers. She gains the ability to move objects with her mind, absorb knowledge instantaneously, and not feel pain. So kind of like Chronicle meets Maria Full of Grace? Ok, sounds cool.

Besson will release the crime drama Malavita later this year with Robert De Niro and Tommy Lee Jones starring. Johansson will be seen in Joseph Gordon-Levitt's directorial debut, Don Jon, and will return as Black Widow in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. [THR]

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Hailee Steinfeld joins Kevin Costner in McG's untitled thriller

After making her mark in the Coen Brothers' True Grit, Hailee Steinfeld has been extraordinarily picky about how she would follow it up. It took awhile, but eventually we saw her join the promising music world drama Can a Song Save Your Life?, an adaptation of Romeo & Juliet, and taking on a blockbuster in Ender's Game. But all that pickiness has been thrown out the window because she just signed up for a friggin' McG film.

Back in October we learned that Kevin Costner would star in an untitled action film produced by Luc Besson and directed by McG, with the story centering on a Secret Service agent who is dying and decided to retire in order to reconcile with his daughter(Steinfeld). But when the government comes to him with a way to possibly cure his disease in exchange for one final mission, he takes it on and must deal with its hallucinatory side effects. Written by Besson and Adi Hasak, it originally went under the title of Three Days to Kill.

McG doesn't do squat for me, but Costner/Steinfeld/Besson are enough to get me at least a little bit interested. No word when this will shoot but it doesn't sound like it'll be too long from now. [Deadline]

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Kevin Costner confirmed for Luc Besson's untitled action thriller; unfortunately so is McG

Earlier this year we learned of a handful of new projects led by Luc Besson and his EuropaCorp studios. One of those that was said very early in development at the time was Three Days to Kill, which Besson would co-write with Adi Hasek(From Paris with Love) and follow a dying assassin who goes on one final mission while trying to reconcile with his daughter. Then this summer Kevin Costner's name emerged as a potential star, along with McG as a possible director. Looks like everything worked out as both are now confirmed for the newly untitled film.

So a bit of mixed emotions here as Costner has been making one heck of a comeback over the last few months, signing on for Paramount's Jack Ryan franchise, as well as appearing in next year's Man of Steel. McG, on the other hand, doesn't inspire a lot of confidence although I must say his sensibilities are very much in line with Besson's.

It's unclear when filming will begin, but a full synopsis has been revealed which fleshes out the plot a little bit. Check that out below....

PLOT: The thriller explores a story about Secret Service Agent Ethan Runner who discovers he's dying and decides to retire in order to reconnect with his estranged family. But when the Secret Service offers him access to an experimental drug that could save his life in exchange for one last assignment, he soon finds himself trying to juggle his family, his mission, and the drug's hallucinatory side-effects.

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Sure Shots: Robert Zemeckis; Kevin Costner; Alexander Payne

* After years away from live-action flicks, Robert Zemeckis is making his return with the Denzel Washington-led drama, Flight. Next up, he'll take over directing Taking Flight, and no, it isn't any kind of sequel or follow-up.  Zemeckis will now take over the project from David Gordon Green(Pineapple Express), who has apparently dropped it, likely to full concentrate on his Suspiria remake. Based on Bob Friel's proposed book,  Taking Flight: The Hunt for a Young Outlaw, the film follows Colton Harris-Moore, a young criminal who started stealing cars and boats at a young age, teaching himself how to fly in order to evade capture. At the age of 18 he escaped a halfway house and kicked his criminal activities up a notch, earning the nickname the "Barefoot Bandit" because on occasion he committed his thefts without shoes on. Earlier this year he was sentenced to 6 1/2 years in federal prison. Dustin Lance Black(Milk) is writing the script.[THR]

* Let the comeback of Kevin Costner continue! Already shinin' after the success of Hatfields & McCoys, along with his upcoming role in Zack Snyder's Man of Steel, Costner has lined up two more projects. Costner is in talks to join Paramount's Jack Ryan reboot, which has Chris Pine starring as a younger version of the Tom Clancy character. Costner would play a mentor to Ryan, similar to the Admiral Greer character James Earl Jones played in Patriot Games. Actually, Jones is expected to reprise his role as Greer in the prequel, which is pretty cool in and of itself. Kenneth Branagh is directing, and hopefully we'll get a title for the film soon.

Luc Besson and his Europacorp studio are also looking at Costner for the role of a dying assassin in Three Days to Kill, a film which Besson is co-writing along with Adi Hasek. Sounding like The Professional with a ticking clock subplot, the story centers on the ailing killer who wants to reconcile with his daughter before he dies, while also tackling one final assignment. Apparently, McG(This Means War) is circling the directing gig, which means the movie may suck something fierce. [Deadline]

* Years in the making, Alexander Payne(The Descendants) is finally going to see his road trip comedy, Nebraska, headed to the big screen. The film has officially been greenlit, and will star Bruce Dern(Big Love) and Will Forte(MacGruber) in the two lead roles, that of an aging, hard-drinking dad who goes on a trip from Montana to Nebraska with his underachieving son to claim a sweepstakes prize he may not have actually won. Budgeted at $13M, this is a pretty big opportunity for both Dern and Forte, especially in the wake of Payne's recent Academy Award success. The script comes from Bob Nelson, with a recent polish by Payne. No word on when filming begins, but Paramount's plan is to have it ready by next year's awards season. [Deadline]

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Luc Besson, Angelina Jolie thriller to shoot in 2013; director lines up 'Valerian' adaptation

Who lit a fire under Luc Besson all of a sudden? The French director was such a force back in the 90s with movies like The Professional and The Fifth Element, but he took a step back in recent years and into a supposed semi-retirement. Not that it ever slowed him down, as he's continued to write and produce numerous films(Taken, The Transporter), while still occasionally stepping behind the camera. Recently he's been on a tear, and while The Lady didn't get the Oscar love he hoped for, Besson has a handful of projects on the way, including one with Angelina Jolie that we haven't heard much about in months.

So about that Jolie project, we first learned about it last December, and at the time it was described as a big dramatic thriller with sci-fi elements. With Jolie's busy schedule and Besson suddenly getting off of his couch, a spring start date was considered extremely tentative. Now Variety reports that the untitled film is indeed happening, but it will shoot in early 2013, after she wraps up Maleficent and Besson clears his own calendar. In August he'll be directing the gangster action-comedy, Malavita, which stars Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, and the newly added Tommy Lee Jones.  Besson also is attached to co-write another action-comedy, Three Days to Kill, but that project is still in the very early stages.

As if he wasn't busy enough, Besson is adding one more. He'll write and direct an adaptation of the French sci-fi comic book series, Valerian. Created by Pierre Christin and artist Jean-Claude Mézières in 1967, the graphic novels are set in the 28th century and follow a human government agent named Valerian, who has grand adventures across space and time. He's joined by his female companion, Laureline, a peasant girl from 11th century France.

Besson's directed three movies in the last five years, and it's good to see him really ramping up his output again. He's always been a favorite director of mine, and hopefully working with Jolie on a high profile film will get him back into the upper echelon where he belongs.

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Sure Shots: Shailene Woodley; Tommy Lee Jones; Rafe Spall

* Shailene Woodley has kept a fairly low profile since turning so many heads in last year's The Descendants. She's set to star in James Pondoldt's The Spectacular Now, and that was about it until today. The controversial Gregg Araki(Nowhere, The Doom Generation) has tapped her to lead his upcoming film, White Bird. The plot sounds a little bare, which usually means Araki has something crazy planned. Woodley will play a troubled young woman who sees her life only get worse when her mother mysteriously disappears. It's early days on this one, as there's no start date or other cast involved just yet. [Variety]

* Nobody plays bad ass lawmen better than Tommy Lee Jones, so it's no wonder Luc Besson wants him for Malavita, his mob comedy starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Robert De Niro. Based on the book, Badfellas, the film follows an ex-mafia family who move to Normandy under the Witness Protection Program. While they try to blend in with their neighbors and start a new life, it isn't long before their old life comes calling, and they start taking care of business in the old ways. Jones will play an FBI agent and the family's handler who tries to help them assimilate to their new life. Filming begins this August. [Variety]

* Rafe Spall, last seen meeting a most gruesome fate in Ridley Scott's Prometheus, is set to star in the indie drama, Son of the South. Produced by Spike Lee and directed by his longtime editor, Barry Alexander Brown, the film tells the true story of Bob Zellner, a white author growing up in hyper racist Alabama. The son of a minister and grandson of a KKK member, Zellner would overcome his upbringing and fight for civil rights. Jacqueline Emerson, who played Foxface in The Hunger Games, will play his fiance. Marianne Jean Baptiste, Lou Gosset Jr co-star. [ThePlaylist]

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Robert De Niro to star in Luc Besson-directed gangster thriller, 'Malavita'

If it seems like Luc Besson's name is attached to like half a dozen movies a year, it's because that's basically true. Mostly in a writing or co-producing capacity, as the French filmmaker went into a state of semi-retirement which has only seen him direct a handful of movies in the last five years. That said, he hasn't really slowed down at all, having his hands in nine feature films in just the last couple of years. As part of a major co-financing deal between Besson's EuraCorp and Relativity Media, Besson now has two more projects lined up that should keep him plenty busy.

Robert De Niro is set to star in Malavita, a gangster thriller which Besson will write and direct. De Niro will play a retired American gangster now living with his family in Normandy under the witness protection program. After blending into the community as just another normal family, his past of course comes back to haunt him. The story is based on Tonino Benacquista's novel, Badfellas, and is described as a light-hearted, black comedy. Filming will get underway on August 14th.

The other film we don't know much about yet except it's going under the working title of Three Days to Kill, and will feature a script by Besson and Adi Hasek. It's being described as a funnier version of Taken, which to me sounds a lot like Lockout. Maybe in this one Maggie Grace gets kidnapped by a traveling circus? [Variety]

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