If you loved the nonstop action that Liam Neeson and Luc Besson brought us back in 2008 with Taken, then you should get ready now that the excellent Rade Sherbedgia (best known in everything from 24 to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 1) is being cast as the film’s major villain for Neeson to use his “particular set of skills” on. Here’s the scoop from THR:

Sherbedgia will play Murad, the father of a kidnapper slain by Bryan Mills (Neeson) in the first film. Murad is described as a vengeful man who gives orders and doesn’t take them. When Murad takes Mills and his wife hostage, their daughter is enlisted to help save them.

Sherbedgia will next star in Angelina Jolie’s directorial debut, In the Land of Blood and Honey, which will be released in December. Sherbedgia’s credits include Batman Begins, Mission: Impossible II and a memorable turn as Boris “The Blade” Yurinov in Snatch.

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Liam Neeson just can’t seem to stop doing bad ass things. Between chasing down a boat on foot in Taken, releasing the Kraken in Clash of the Titans, kicking Batman’s ass as Ra’s Al Ghul, or just being Qui Gon Jinn, he doesn’t seem to have any downtime. Continuing in that theme, he’s now going to fight a pack of wolves with his hands.

That’s right, he’s in a brand new flick called The Grey in which he takes on a pack of pissed off wolves. And fights them…hand to hand. Here’s the quick premise.

In Alaska, an oil drilling team struggle to survive after a plane crash strands them in the wild. Hunting the humans are a pack of wolves who see them as intruders.

If the premise doesn’t sell you, the money shot is clearly Neeson using broken bottles as makeshift knuckles as he sets his sights on some wolves in the snow that shouldn’t have messed with him.

Be ready for the action in the trailer after the jump, and catch The Grey in theaters on January 27th.

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When you think of hot female assassins/badasses, who comes to mind? For me it’s a cross between Anne Parillaud in the original La Femme Nikita, Uma Thurman’s The Bride in Kill Bill, Devon Aoki as Miho in Sin City and Yvonne Strahovski as Sarah in Chuck.

Put all those together and that would be a potent mix indeed. Now, it seems, we may be able to add Zoe Saldana to that mix.

Why? Well today, Sony Pictures has released a trailer for Colombiana, which stars Saldana as a stone-cold female assassin. To illustrate the point, we’ve got the trailer for the film to share with you.

Colombiana was written by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen and directed by Olivier Megaton (who has a perfect name for an action director, don’t you think?) Check out the trailer after the jump.

And no, that pic above is not from the movie. It’s from The Losers, but I like it — and so should you.

Who’s your favorite female baddass?

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You know her best as Sayeed’s hot yet ill-fated love interest Shannon in Lost and as a daughter who’s father “has a particular set of skills” in Taken. Now, Maggie Grace is set to jump into another role: a vampire who threatens Kristen Stewart’s Bella in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn.

According to the report, Grace will play the role of Irina in the final installments of the Stephenie Meyer novel, which Bill Condon is directing as two separate films. In case you don’t know or haven’t read the books, Irina is a member of the Denali coven of vampires who are considered cousins to the Cullens as they are the only others who don’t prey on humans.

Sadly, things go wrong as they often do and when Irina blames the Cullens for the death of her lover, she plots revenge. . . and things go downhill from there.

Part one of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn will be released by Summit Entertainment on November 18, 2011. The second will hit theaters late in 2012.

Actor Joel Gretsch has been making the rounds in the televised science fiction world since Steven Spielberg’s Taken miniseries back in 2002. Since then, we’ve gotten Joel in The 4400, Journeyman and the film Push. Gretsch can now be seen as Father Jack Landry on ABC’s V. We recently got to talk to Joel about his role on the show, his ties to the world of sci-fi, and even got a response to a question that fanboys and girls have been asking for years.

The Flickcast: Starting off, what can you tell me about the things coming up on V?

Joel Gretsch: Wow, what a question. [laughs]. Lots of things. It’s really ramping up. Scott Rosenbaum, the showrunner, is writing a lot of fast, neck-breaking reveals, and you’re going to learn a lot of things of things about where each character comes from, why they are who they are. Why is Father Jack a priest? Stuff like that.

Anna’s moving. She’s got a reason why she’s here, and all that is going to get revealed. Also backstories. Erica’s relationship with Tyler is going to be revealed some more, as well as her relationship with her husband. A lot of emotional things will be happening, people will get hurt, my faith will be compromised even more than it already has, and it also gets more solidified. There is really a lot of stuff going on.

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Liam Neeson has been pretty busy lately. Between “summoning the Kraken” as Zeus in Clash of the Titans, getting back his daughter in Taken, putting together plans in The A-Team, and hanging with Amanda Seyfried in Chloe, he’s having quite the life. However, it seems he’s still got some more juice in him as he’s playing the (potential?) bad guy in the upcoming film After.Life.

From unknown writer/director Agnieszka Wojtowics-Vosloo (who’s name will allow you to win every game of Scrabble. Ever) and Paul Vosloo, the premise is simple. Christina Ricci dies, and is caught between life and death. Only Liam Neeson, a funeral director who can see dead people, can carry her over. Only, she doesn’t exactly want to go.

Confused? The trailer doesn’t help you that much, unfortunately. The premise is enticing, yet could potentially be very contrived. All we’ll say is check out the new trailer after the jump, and expect an M. Night Shyamalan-like twist at the end of the film, which hits theaters on April 9th.

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We’ve been known to give John Travolta a hard time around here, and we don’t mean to. The guy has got some serious acting chops, and he’s still getting work after all these years. Any actor/actress that has fa diverse set of ilms like like Broken Arrow, Pulp Fiction, Hairspray, and Look Who’s Talking on a resume deserves some credit, so we’ll give it to him.

His newest film, From Paris With Love, seems to throw Travolta into a role that was definitely meant for another actor, if not many. His image in this film is something we’ve never seen before (not counting Pelham) and it’s quite refreshing to see an actor reinvent himself over and over in a span of 40 years.

In a new clip from the Pierre Morel (Taken) film, Travolta, as special agent Charlie Wax, infiltrates an enemy hideout in an unconventional way. Check out the clip after the jump, and be sure to catch From Paris With Love in theaters on February 5th.

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While the idea of the “buddy cop” film has lost it’s luster here in the States since Riggs and Murtaugh hung up their guns, the sub-genre has taken on a whole new life over in France. Back in 2004, writer Luc Besson (The Fifth Element, Taken, The Transporter Trilogy) brought the worlds of buddy cop films, action, and parkour together. The film was a hit across the globe, and the team is now reuniting to do it again.

The trailer for District B13: Ultimatum gives us a glimpse of the awesomeness that we can look forward to, including leaps from skyscrapers, driving through the second floor of a building, and outrunning a car on foot. Of course, we don’t recommend watching this film in it’s dubbed form over it’s original French dialogue, but you may not have a choice when the movie gets an American theatrical release.

Check out the first new trailer for the film after the jump, with no dialogue, cocky narration, and yes: lots of jumping and explosions. Expect to see District B13: Ultimatum in your local multiplex on February 5, 2010.

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For those unaware, Liam Neeson is probably best known, at least lately, for having “a particular set of skills.” Skills he used in his recent film Taken to track down his missing daughter, take down a European human trafficking ring, drive completely through a house in an Audi, and outrun a boat…on foot. In Neeson’s newest film, The Other Man, he seems to be going back to a familiar place when he finds out that his wife, played by Laura Linney, is cheating on him with Antonio Banderas.

There has been talk of a sequel to Taken, and Neeson’s performance was highly celebrated, which wasn’t clear until we saw clips from this newest film. Could this be a new, dark place that Liam Neeson will be residing in, leaving behind roles like Qui-Gon Jin?

Granted, Neeson’s accent is different, but it’s pretty clear that he is playing the same, boat-chasing character from Taken here. There is a scene towards the end of the trailer (which you can see after the jump) where Banderas and Neeson face off in an intense game of Chess. Another one of the Irish actor’s skills? Perhaps.

Take a look at the trailer, and see for yourself. The Other Man hits theaters nationwide this Friday.

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