In news that should surprise precisely no one, the first actor besides Liam Neeson to secure a deal for Taken 3 is Maggie Grace. She'll be appearing once again as Kim, the daughter of the Action Dad with a particular set of skills.
In the first film she was a passive, drugged kidnap victim, but in Taken 2 she was more than up for throwing the odd grenade. In 3 we fully predict she'll have progressed to full-on CIA mercenary, running a black-op in Val Verde and drafting in Papa Bryan when things go pear shaped. Neeson will then retire from the series, handing over the reigns to Grace for Takens** 4**, 5 and 6. In a surprise crossover, she'll then also show up in that female **Expendables thing everyone's talking about.
We made that shit up, obviously. Nobody yet knows what the storyline of Taken 3 will entail plot-wise. What we do know is that producer Luc Besson and his usual cohort Robert Mark Kamen have bashed out the screenplay in record time, and that Europacorp action regular Olivier Megaton will be directing, as he did Taken 2. There's was talk a few weeks ago of Forest Whitaker playing the villain this time, but there's no more confirmation on that so far. Neither is there any mention yet of Famke Janssen returning to complete the Mills family, but we wouldn't be surprised if she does.
Grace has also landed a leading role in a new, as-yet untitled Wall Street-set drama pilot for CBS, to be directed by Niels Arden Oplev (T****he Girl With The Dragon Tattoo). She'll get going on that after Taken 3, which starts shooting later this month.