Citing the fact that he’s kind of an old man and the whole thing is getting pretty silly, Liam Neeson has declared that he’s getting tired of constantly making interchangeable action movies that are all about an older dude getting revenge on some criminals/animals who hurt his family and/or want to eat him. That’s according to Sky, which says Neeson expressed his growing disinterest in action movies during an appearance at the Toronto International Film Festival. He reportedly says he’d rather focus on “more serious roles,” because this whole action movie phase was “all a pure accident.”
Turning his back on movies like Taken, Run All Night, Non-Stop, and The Grey won’t be easy, though, as Neeson admits that studios are “still throwing serious money” at him to do cheap and easy thrillers where he just has to scowl and wave a gun around. He knows that it’s just a matter of time before people lose their patience for that stuff, though. “I’m like, ‘guys, I’m sixty-fucking-five,’” he says. “Audiences are eventually going to go: ‘Come on.’”
Of course, this is all just a perfect setup for some kind of Wes Craven’s New Nightmare-style meta story where the real Liam Neeson gets pulled out of retirement and has to use his action movie skills to make the ultimate action movie. He can even do a clever riff on the iconic Taken speech, but he can be on the phone with a movie studio executive instead of a kidnapper. They could call the movie Liam Neeson’s New Taken, just to make it all a little confusing.