Liam Neeson will star in In The Land Of Saints And Sinners, an Ireland-set thriller that reunites him with his The Marksman director Robert Lorenz. Deadline reports that in the film, Neeson plays a retired assassin who “finds himself drawn into a lethal game of cat and mouse with a trio of vengeful terrorists.”
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy actor Ciarán Hinds co-stars in the film, which is scheduled to begin shooting in Ireland in March. In The Land Of Saints And Sinners is written by Mark Michael McNally and Terry Loane, with revisions by Matthew Feitshans.
After having a developed a reputation as a serious dramatic performer with films such as Schindler's List and Michael Collins, Neeson inadvertently reinvented himself as an older action star with the surprise 2008 hit Taken. In the last few years, he has suggested that he is done starring in action films, citing his age. But he's sticking to the genre in his next three projects -- Blacklight, Retribution, and Memory, the latter of which he also plays an assassin in.
The first time Neeson said that he was getting too old for action movies was in 2015, when he told Collider that he could probably only do them for “maybe two more years.” He said:
“If God spares me and I’m healthy. But after that, I’ll stop [the action] I think. The success of certainly the Taken films, Hollywood seems to see me in a different light. I get sent quite a few action-oriented scripts, which is great. I’m not knocking it. It’s very flattering. But there is a limit, of course.”
He walked back his words in 2017, and told Variety that reports of his retirement from the genre were "not true." He said, "Look at me! You're talking in the past tense. I'm going to be doing action movies until they bury me in the ground. I'm unretired."
Now nearing 70, Neeson was asked the same question again earlier this year in an interview with ET, and he said, “Oh, yeah. I think so. I'm 68 and a half. 69 this year. There's a couple more I'm going to do this year -- hopefully, COVID allowing us -- there's a couple in the pipeline and, then I think that will probably be it. Well, unless I'm on a Zimmer frame or something.”
In The Land Of Saints And Sinners is produced by Philip Lee, Markus Barmettler, Bonnie Timmermann, Geraldine Hughes and Loane. Lorenz executive produces alongside Ehud Bleiberg, Danny Dimbort, Nicholas Donnermeyer, Kieran Corrigan, Marc Jacobson. The film doesn’t have a release date yet.