NBC orders prequel series based on ‘Taken’ films

Luc Besson is revisiting Taken with NBC. According to a story at Deadline, a Taken TV series is on the way and has just been given a full season order by the network.

What happens before the events of “Taken”? As a nod to the characters speech from the first film when he brings up his “particular skills” that hes culled together over a long career, the show will likely see him as a Central Intelligence Agency operative who is going about acquiring that very same skill set that helped him save his family in the three feature films.

What doesn’t is the fact that this Taken TV series will be set in the present day, the same time period as the movies. The series will take place long before badass Bryan Mills has a wife or daughter to be kidnapper bait. For its part, NBC is also prepping a gay-focused remake of TV series Hart to Hart. Straight-to-series orders like Taken (and Coach) come as broadcast, cable and streaming services compete for high-demand fare in a bid to break through.

The “Taken” prequel hails from Universal TV and Besson’s EuropaCorp.

Taken is the first of several EuropeCorp series developed in the United States by the company’s Los Angeles-based operation, EuropaCorp Television USA , run by president Matthew Gross. NBC has a history with EuropaCorp, having aired summer comedy Taxi Brooklyn a few years ago. Other Besson movies that have been turned into series include La Femme Nikita and Transporter.