Liam Neeson Is A Disgraced Detective In Dark Netflix Thriller
Liam Neeson, as a grizzled detective in a neo-noir thriller, is like peanut butter and chocolate — it just makes sense. If that combination sounds good to you, make sure to check out the film A Walk Among the Tombstones. It’s currently available to stream on Netflix.
A Walk Among the Tombstones is based on the 1992 novel of the same name by Lawrence Block and stars Liam Neeson as a disgraced detective turned private investigator who is hired by a drug kingpin to track down the person who kidnapped and murdered his wife. The cast is rounded out by Dan Stevens, David Harbour, Olafur Darri Olafsson, Mark Consuelos, Adam David Thompson, Sebastian Roche, Laura Birn, Razane Jammal, Leon Addison Brown, Danielle Rose Russell, Marielle Heller, and Boyd Holbrook. Scott Frank directed the film and adapted the screenplay.
A Walk Among the Tombstones, streaming now on Netflix, is one of Liam Neeson’s overlooked but successful action-thrillers.
Although A Walk Among the Tombstones never quite reaches the highs of Liam Neeson’s best thrillers like Taken, Neeson still perfectly embodies the character of Matthew Scudder, and the film is a solid outing overall. Reviews for the film were mostly positive, and it also managed to be a modest box office success. It made around $62.1 million worldwide against a budget of $28 million.
Interestingly, Liam Neeson wasn’t the first person to be attached to the project despite being perfect for the role. The adaptation of Block’s novel had been in the works for years, with a version of the film having Harrison Ford attached to star and D.J. Caruso attached to direct in 2002. This version never came to fruition, and Leeson was eventually announced as the star in 2012.
Ruth Wilson also had a pretty extensive role in A Walk Among the Tombstones as the character Jo Durkin from the books. Wilson filmed scenes as the partner for Liam Neeson’s character. However, Scott Frank liked Neeson’s character better as a lone wolf rather than someone who had a partner, so these scenes were ultimately cut from the final film.
Liam Neeson’s Busy Year
A Walk Among the Tombstones is an especially great watch if you missed out on all of Liam Neeson’s projects he released in 2023. The Batman Begins actor had a pretty busy year, starring in films like In The Land of Saints and Sinners, Wildcat, and Retribution. Neeson’s most recent release was In the Land of Saints and Sinners, where he puts his intimidating presence to good use as a retired assassin in a remote Irish village who finds himself having to go back to his violent ways when a trio of terrorists shows up.
Liam Neeson also had a brief, non-action role in the aforementioned Wildcat, which starred Maya Hawke as American novelist Flannery O’Connor and was directed by her father, Ethan Hawke. Retribution starred Neeson as a man who receives a phone call from an unknown person while driving his two kids. He’s told that a bomb will go off in the car if he exits the car and doesn’t follow instructions.
Liam Neeson also has an upcoming film called Thug, which stars Neeson as an aging gangster who attempts to reconnect with his kids. The film also stars Ron Perlman, Daniel Diemer, and Yolonda Ross. Right now, the film doesn’t have an official release date set, but it has reportedly finished filming.
Liam Neeson has plenty of other projects in the pipeline, but they don’t have release dates announced yet either.
While there’s no word on when we can expect to see Liam Neeson in Thug, the actor does have a film called Cold Storage, which is set for a 2024 release. Cold Storage is a thriller directed by Jonny Campbell and written by David Koepp, based on Koepp’s 2019 novel of the same name. The film stars Liam Neeson and Stranger Things‘ Joe Keery as humanity’s last hope of destroying a rapidly mutating micro-organism before it ends humankind.
Cold Storage seems like a promising project for Liam Neeson, especially with David Koepp, who has worked on Jurassic Park, Spider-Man, and Mission: Impossible, involved in writing the film. It’ll be interesting to learn more about the film as the release date gets closer. It could definitely be a big hit for Neeson, whose recent efforts have flown a little under the radar.
Liam Neeson has plenty of other projects in the pipeline, but they don’t have release dates announced yet either. In the meantime, make sure to check out A Walk Among the Tombstones. You can stream it on Netflix now.
