The Irish actor will star in the untitled sequel to the action-packed Taken, which could be released in the States as soon as October 2012.

Neeson (Star Wars, Love Actually) will be returning in the role of former CIA agent Bryan Mills, who uses his brains and brawn to take down the enemy and save the day.

Olivier Megaton (The Transporter 3, The Red Siren) is set to direct the action thriller with Luc Besson (Fifth Element) and Robert Mark Kamen (The Karate Kid) co-writing the screenplay.

The much anticipated sequel will once again feature Maggie Grace (Lost, The Fog) and Famke Janssen (X-Men , Golden Eye) who are set to reprise their characters from the first film. Janssen plays Bryan’s wife, Lenore, while Grace plays their daughter Kim who was kidnapped in the first film.

But this time around, Kim pays back the favour by trying to save her parents when they are taken hostage by Murad – the father of a kidnapper who Bryan killed while rescuing Kim in Paris. But Kim doesn’t do all the cool stunts, as once again Bryan uses his advanced level secret service tactics to free his family and take out the villains one by one. This time, the film is set in Istanbul, where the family are trying to have a peaceful holiday.

If you are desperate for a sneak peek, check out the official trailer below.

Most people tend to hate on Keanu, but I really like his acting and his work in general. But to see him doing a documentary is very interesting – projects like that come from a passion for the subject, not money – one would guess, at least.

Traditional film – that is, non-digital film – is dying, and Reeves has sought out and interviewed everyone from George Lucas (Star Wars, THX 1138) to James Cameron (Avatar, Terminator), Martin Scorsese (Goodfellas, Hugo) to David Lynch (Eraserhead, Mulholland Drive), with the intent of hearing how they feel about film cells passing into history in favour of the digital medium.

It looks interesting, thought-provoking and – if you’re not too well read up on the history of filmmaking – educational. If you were into Channel Four’s recent The Story of Film documentary series, you’re likely to enjoy this. The trailer is below, and the documentary will première at the Berlin International Film Festival in February of this year. Enjoy the trailer.

Now, I make a lot of jokes about George Lucas, as he’s a figure ripe for satire and ridicule, given his penchant for upsetting fans and (as part of that upset) constantly revising Star Wars until all traces of the original trilogy have been destroyed. But I take my hat off to the man – he’s had an amazing career, and has produced some of the most memorable cinema the world has ever seen.

A child may not yet know their times table, but there’s a fair likelihood they could recognise a lightsaber. Lucas’ work has permeated all layers of our society like few others, and his running symbol in his work (the code THX 1138) is one of my favourite things to spot in film, television and videogames based on his work.

What he’ll do now is anybody’s guess. If I was him, I’d head up into the countryside on Skywalker Ranch, take a wooden lightsaber, and become an Obi-Wan for the next chosen director who wishes to make the jump from talented youth to cinema legend. All the best to you, George, you pedantic, weird fellow.

Last year it was announced that George Lucas has been a busy man, digitally enhancing all six films in the franchise, ready to bring them back to theatres next month.

The move is yet another example of Hollywood’s attempt to make more money out of former releases. The Lion King 3D and Beauty and the Beast 3D have already been released, while James Cameron’s Titanic is coming to the big screen again in April.

The trouble with Lucas releasing all six films is, he’s releasing them in order. And I don’t mean the order of their original releases. If only that were true.

First up are the prequels, beginning with 1999′s Episode One: The Phantom Menace, which so happens to be the least popular of the entire franchise.

Yes, we have to sit through the first three in order, before we can enjoy the original classics in even greater glory. And while yes, Episode Three: Revenge of the Sith was a decent film, The Phantom Menace and Episode Two: Attack of the Clones, were not.

Despite the prequels being widely agreed to be inferior to the originals, Star Wars fans will no doubt flock in their thousands.

At the very least we can admire the posters, which are admittedly rather cool. The Phantom Menace promotion has placed emphasis on the best moments in the film: Darth Maul, the big race and the characters we know and love.

Perhaps they hope we will forget the existence of Jar Jar (who is noticeably absent from all advertising) and the slow moving plot?

The Phantom Menace opens 10th February 2012. The release dates of the other five films are yet to be announced.

So which release are you most looking forward to? Let us know!

Here is one of the posters! Click to view full size:

Harrison Ford is probably one of the most prolific sci-fi actors in history. Known best for playing Han Solo in the original Star Wars trilogy, he seems perfectly geared towards taking up the role of the commander of a Battle School, where young humans are trained to become hardened warriors. Not quite the roguish smuggler of Star Wars, or Blade Runner‘s Rick Deckard, but definitely a role he’ll relish, having taken slightly more serious and responsible characters on board in later years – Cowboys and Aliens featuring a particularly good example.

As a film, it’s shaping up to be something special, with Ben Kingsley, Asa Butterfield and a wealth of acting talent turning their skills towards bringing the novel to the big screen. All that remains is the classic “did they do the book justice” dilemma that propels fan conversation to angry heights on a regular basis – Akira fans, here’s looking at you (although I’d say you’re justified – if Ender’s Game sounded as bad as the new Akira, it’d be set in MacDonald’s). More on this as it comes.

I like George Takei. He’s a funny guy, and hearing that he had waded into the fight between Star Wars and Star Trek fans to try and calm everyone down was welcome news. However, he seems to have attempted to align them against a common “threat”: the Twilight series.

As someone who enjoys all three universes, I’m going to offer something of a rebuttal. George, you have clearly no knowledge of the Twilight franchise. It’s not science fiction. You also seem to be under the impression that Star Wars and Star Trek are as culturally relevant now as they were in the seventies. They’re not.

Takei proceeds to then jump on the Stephen King bandwagon and claim the main theme of Twilight is the question “does my boyfriend like me?” This is odd, given that the series deals with puberty, teenage pregnancy, avoiding violence, teamwork and friendship, and that the main morals of Star Wars are that incest is cool and nothing you do can ever possibly have any consequences, with Star Trek putting forward the bonus “kill or copulate” rule when dealing with alien races, but there you go.

I’ve embedded the video below, and I look forward to watching a video of R-Patz and Robo-Shatner teaming up against the next popular franchise in 2041.

With the Transformers film on its way to cinemas soon (I know, we prefer the cartoons as well), everyone’s going to be very robot-happy. But there’s been a long tradition of robots appearing in films, so we thought we’d see how robot-savvy you are.

Reboots are common, but there are certain films that it’s best not to touch. Die Hard, Indiana Jones, The Godfather, Star Wars, oh, and Jurassic Park. The reason you don’t reboot these franchises is because they are fine as they are.

It’s not the X-Men franchise, where the films are decent but could be easily remade and improved on – the Jurassic Park films are legendary, and most especially the first two (similar to Terminator, another untouchable franchise… well, it used to be). So to remake them runs the risk of a giant like Spielberg effectively trampling all over his own work in favour of a film that won’t be guaranteed to inspire the same amount of awe, terror and excitement that the original films managed in spades.

Nothing’s set in stone at present; nothing ever is, when it comes to remakes and reboots, as the controversy of committing to something so blasphemous usually renders the project inert after a few short months. Then again, it’s not a new rumour, the web tells me, but Spielberg’s direct involvement with the project lends it a worrying level of credibility. More on this as it develops.

If you can’t get enough of New Zealand countryside in movies, and love hunter-and-the-hunted style thrillers, then you might just want a copy of Tracker.

Ray Winstone is, for the first time in my memory at least, playing someone who never has the urge to say “guv,” a surprise after a career in films such as 44-Inch Chest and Sexy Beast. As a South African Boer who’s lost his home in the Boer War at the beginning of the 20c, he travels to New Zealand where he is employed to track down a Maori accused of killing a British Soldier (played by Temuera Morrison) only to find he has a lot in common with the man.

Read our review of Tracker on The Film Review.

Those of you that are on-the-ball with names and faces may find this role-reversal oddly amusing, given that Morrison played bounty hunter Jango Fett in Star Wars Episodes I & II. However, this time he’s on the run from Winstone, and not a Jedi. It’s hard to decide which is the worse scenario.

So, if you’re intrigued (we are, immensely so), then we’ve got a competition for you, folks! We have three copies of Tracker to give away to our readers, so get cracking on the question below, and good luck! Trailer’s below and so’s the question.

And here’s the trailer:

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Image Courtesy of Chris Ray.

Star Wars is, no buts about it, one of the most epic and celebrated stories ever told in the modern age. Children born in 2002 are aware of the Jedi, and people who were born in 1972 are just as aware. Two trilogies (separate, as if we say the word “sextilogy” we’ll need new identities), incredible special effects and ground-breaking mixes of sci-fi and fantasy themes. Now it’s going to be seen in 3D, in addition to the Blu-Ray editions we talked about recently.

If you’re wondering when, we’re looking at a 2012 date for Episode One: The Phantom Menace, and with good reason. According to Industrial Light and Magic’s visual effects supervisor (ILM being the company converting the films to 3D format): “Getting good results on a stereo conversion is a matter of taking the time and getting it right. It takes a critical and artistic eye along with an incredible attention to detail to be successful.

“It is not something that you can rush if you want to expect good results. For Star Wars we will take our time, applying everything we know both aesthetically and technically to bring audiences a fantastic new Star Wars experience.”

So, whether they’re using the controversial remastered versions or sticking to the originals remains to be seen, but you can be fairly sure it’ll be the former, as George Lucas explained when he used them for the Blu-Ray editions. Comments? And all jokes about the Force and 3D are most welcome.