Liam Neeson is Bill Marks, a U.S. Federal air marshal with the obligatory checkered past and a delightful host of vices. Midway through a trans-Atlantic flight he receives a text message from an untraceable number that claims in 20 minutes someone on the plane will die…unless a $150 million is deposited into a special account. And Bill, with the help of stewardess Nancy (Michelle Dockery) and plucky passenger Jen (Julianne Moore) must uncover the identity of the potential killer/hijacker.

That’s all you need; if you want to know how the rest of the movie plays out, just imagine everything you can do with that premise, as the passengers gradually become more and more aware of the situation and Marks’s control gradually diminishes – or, better yet, see the film.

Director Jaume Collet-Serra (Orphan, Unknown) maintains a consistent feel of paranoia by keeping his camera close and confined to the actors’ faces, barely giving the audience a chance to breathe and, early on, lingering on a handful of passengers to playfully suggest that any one or two or all of them could be the culprit. Even before the mystery begins you’re already suspicious, and while I was hoping for the villain to be revealed as the little girl’s teddy bear (Spoiler: It’s not), it wasn’t too much of stretch, given Collet-Serra’s insinuation that everyone on this damn plane must be hiding something.

It looks like CBS’ drama pilot Quean is over before it began. According to inside sources at Warner Bros TV, which produces the project with Joel Silver’s Silver Pictures, the decision has been made to pull the plug upon the advice of an outside legal firm.

Quean was supposed to be a crime procedural which centers on an edgy and independent hacker girl who teams up with a police detective to solve crimes. The pilot secured Jaume Collet-Serra (House of Wax, Orphan) as director, was written by The L Word creator Ilene Chaiken, and was moving to the casting stage when Warner Bros TV received a letter from Sony Pictures threatening a lawsuit over alleged similarities to The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

Unknown, directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, has some interesting elements going for it. Set in Berlin and armed with an attractive and sturdy cast, Unknown is swimming in themes of mistaken identity, murder and espionage – arguably very exciting and entertaining things. Unfortunately those elements are combined with implausibly pat coincidences, clunky dialogue and a few too many plot-lines.

Dr. Martin Harris (Liam Neeson) and his wife Liz (January Jones) arrive in Berlin to attend A Very Important Science Conference, at which Martin is a noted guest of some sort. While checking into the hotel,  Martin realizes that he has left his briefcase (which contains, among other things, his passport) at the airport – so without so much as a word to his wife, he  jumps into a cab to retrieve it. The cab gets into an accident culminating with it running off of a bridge and into a river, rendering Martin comatose.

When Martin wakes from his coma he has no (or at least very little) memory of his own identity. During his stay in the hospital, he gradually begins to recollect certain things – his marriage to Liz and his purpose for being in Berlin. When he remembers where the conference is being held, Martin leaves the hospital to find his wife – who, when he does locate her, fails recognize him. Intrigue ensues.*

Writer David Leslie Johnson is pretty new to a lot of people, but he plans to be making a name for himself this Friday, as his film Orphan hits theaters across the country. The film is about a married couple who go through an abortion and decide that adoption is their last chance at having a child.

They meet Esther (Isabelle Fuhrman) who, on the outside, seems perfect, but later shows herself to be something “different.” We got a chance to sit down with David right before the hoopla at San Diego Comic-Con and talk about a few things.

The Flickcast: Given the premise of Orphan, would you call it more of a supernatural horror or more like a suspense thriller?

David Johnson: It has horror elements but it plays more like a suspense thriller. My mother actually compared it to films like Fatal Attraction and Cape Fear.

TF: So more of the human condition?

DJ: Yes, absolutely.

TF: A movie like this seems to stem from a history of horror and suspense thrillers, did you pick up a lot of influences from other films for the script?