Liam Neeson Protects Joel Kinnaman in First Images For RUN ALL NIGHT

Liam Neeson will use his particular set of skills one last time in Taken 3 when that film hits theaters this week, but USA Today already has images from his next movie, Run All Night. The project will reunite Neeson with his Unknown and Non-Stop director Jaume Collet-Serra, and features Neeson as - you guessed it - another badass with a gun. Here's the full plot description:

Brooklyn mobster and prolific hit man Jimmy Conlon (Neeson), once known as The Gravedigger, has seen better days.  Longtime best friend of mob boss Shawn Maguire (Ed Harris), Jimmy, now 55, is haunted by the sins of his past—as well as a dogged police detective (Vincent D’Onofrio) who’s been one step behind Jimmy for 30 years.  Lately, it seems Jimmy’s only solace can be found at the bottom of a whiskey glass.

But when Jimmy’s estranged son, Mike (Joel Kinnaman), becomes a target, Jimmy must make a choice between the crime family he chose and the real family he abandoned long ago.  With Mike on the run, Jimmy’s only penance for his past mistakes may be to keep his son from the same fate Jimmy is certain he’ll face himself…at the wrong end of a gun.  Now, with nowhere safe to turn, Jimmy just has one night to figure out exactly where his loyalties lie and to see if he can finally make things right.

Sounds like a pretty standard Neeson action movie, but this one takes place over only one night and includes that family element that just might be enough to shake things up and give this project a bit of an identity separate from the actor's past few films. I'd really like to see him branch out more (his work in The LEGO Movie was great), but I suppose he's carved out a solid little niche for himself and he's milking it as much as he can. Tough to blame him for capitalizing on a late-career popularity boost, but I still wish he'd move on to other kinds of roles.

Run All Night arrives in theaters on April 17th, and the first trailer should hit the web this week.