Liam Neeson seems dedicated to dominating the news feeds today, between new Taken 2 pics and now word that he’ll star in Scott Frank’s adaptation of Lawrence Block’s A Walk Among The Tombstones. We wouldn’t be surprised if he was lurking in the background of the Skyfall poster, punching a wolf or something.
The film, which Frank has written and will direct, sees Neeson as Matt Scudder, a former NYPD officer finding work as an unlicensed private eye. Because all such characters seem to have to have this trait, he's at constant war with the demon drink.
Hired to find the kidnapped wife of a drug dealer, he digs into the case and discovers that the people behind it are not new to this sort of thing, and that it doesn’t usually end well for the victim.
Tombstones has been wandering around the development weeds for a while now, with Frank having penned the script around 14 years ago for Danny DeVito’s Jersey Films. Universal set the thing up with Harrison Ford sniffing around the Scudder role, but nothing came to past. Now Cross Creek Pictures (which is still attached and has just entered a deal with Exclusive Media) has been trying to get it made, most recently luring DJ Caruso into flirting with directing. With Neeson attached, it’s set to finally go before cameras with a shoot set for New York next February.