Actor Liam Neeson has finished up his work on the drama ‘Chloe,’ according to his publicist.

The Irish actor left the set of ‘Chloe’ earlier this month after learning that Richardson had been involved in a skiing accident in Quebec.

The 45-year-old actress died two days later after sustaining fatal head injuries during the fall.

Neeson, who has sons Michael, 13, and Daniel, 12, buried his wife last Sunday before returning to Toronto to finish filming the movie’s final scenes.

Entertainment Weekly reports that the actor had only a day or two of shooting remaining on the film before he left the production.

His publicist confirmed that he has now completed the film.

Grieving Liam Neeson goes back to work

Richardson, 45, daughter of actress Vanessa Redgrave, fell on a beginners’ slope at the Mont Tremblant resort in Canada on Monday.

Neeson’s publicist said the family were devastated by the death of their “beloved Natasha”.

She died in a New York hospital where she had been transferred.

The accident happened while the actress was taking a supervised skiing lesson at the Quebec resort.

Richardson initially showed no sign of injury after the incident but about an hour later she was taken to a nearby hospital after feeling unwell. It was later confirmed her injuries were critical.

Irish actor Neeson, 56, flew from the set of his new film in Toronto to be with his wife as soon as he heard news of the accident.

She was flown from Canada to Lenox Hill Hospital in New York, where her family live, on Tuesday.

Her husband, mother, Oscar-winning actress Vanessa Redgrave, 72, and two sons, Michael, 13, and Daniel, 12, had gathered at her bedside.

Her sister, the Nip/Tuck actress Joely Richardson, was also pictured visiting the hospital.

Richardson’s death was announced shortly before midnight GMT. Neeson left the New York hospital in the back seat of a black people carrier at about 2030 local time (0030 GMT).

Alan Nierob, Neeson’s publicist, said: “Liam Neeson, his sons, and the entire family are shocked and devastated by the tragic death of their beloved Natasha.

“They are profoundly grateful for the support, love and prayers of everyone, and ask for privacy during this very difficult time.”

Richardson starred in films and TV but won most acclaim for her stage work.

Part of the Redgrave acting dynasty, she is the daughter of Redgrave and director Tony Richardson

The Sunday Telegraph’s theatre critic, Tim Walker, said she never needed to ride on the coat-tails of her famous relations.

“The great thing about her was she was a great ensemble actress, she wasn’t one of these people who went out and decided that she wanted to be the big star and have everybody look at her,” she said.

“She had a sort of luminous presence on the stage, but off stage she was a very shy, easy-going, almost self-deprecating character who didn’t like being made a fuss of.”

Richardson, whose father director Tony died of Aids-related causes in 1991, was also on the board of the US-based charity amfAR, The Foundation for Aids Research.

A spokeswoman for the charity said she was a “dedicated Aids advocate” and an “eloquent spokesperson for amfAR”.

“She generously contributed her time and resources to amfAR for over 15 years,” she said.

“Natasha’s passion for the cause and tireless efforts gave hope and inspiration to the scientists and healthcare workers on the front lines of this deadly epidemic, as well as to the millions of people living with HIV/Aids around the world.”

BBC NEWS

A “Friday the 13th” remake — which Warner Bros. bowed so well a week earlier — absorbed an enormous 81% drop from its first Friday-Sunday grosses to register $7.8 million in sixth place over the latest session. Paramount is handling international distribution on the New Line-produced horror pic, which has rung up $55 million over its first 10 days.

Sony Screen Gems’ youth comedy “Fired Up” fetched just $6 million in ninth place in the session’s only other wide opening. Yet aside from such occasional misfires with individual releases, it seems the industry boxoffice can do no wrong right now.

Collectively, the weekend’s $142 million represented a 29% uptick from the same frame a year earlier, according to Nielsen EDI. That made for six of seven up weekends so far this year.

Year to date, 2009 is pacing ahead of last year by just 1% — at $1.45 billion — in a deceptively modest increase shaped by seasonal fluctuations in the boxoffice year.

Elsewhere this weekend, Fox’s Liam Neeson starrer “Taken” refuses to shrink from the upper rankings. The action-thriller grabbed second place over its fourth weekend with $11.4 million and a $95.2 million cume.

Disney’s PG-13 comedy “Confessions of a Shopaholic” fell 53% in its second weekend to $7 million in seventh place, with a $27.7 million cume. Sony’s political thriller “The International” tumbled 52% in its sophomore session to $4.5 million in 10th place, with a $17 million cume.

Fox Searchlight’s Indian drama “Slumdog Millionaire” was again tops among films nominated in the Academy Awards best-pic category, improving 11% over its Friday-Sunday tally of a week earlier. Adding 610 theaters this session for a total 2,244 over its 15th week, “Slumdog” rung up $8.1 million to finish fifth on the frame and boost cume to $98 million.

The Weinstein Co. added 238 playdates for a total of 962 for Kate Winslet starrer “The Reader” and grossed $2.8 million, bringing its 11-week cume to $23.2 million.

Among notable exclusive runs, IFC Films added one location for a total of six in New York and Los Angeles for its Italian-language mob film “Gomorrah” and grossed $66,756, or a solid $11,126 per site. “Gomorrah’s” cume climbed to $211,046.

The outsized bow by “Madea Goes to Jail” — considerably better than expected — surpassed the $33.6 million bow by Lionsgate’s “Saw III” in October 2006. It also topped Perry’s previous opening high of $30 million by 2006′s “Madea’s Family Reunion.”

The multihyphenate’s releases tend to do better when they feature the maternal character of Madea — and apparently those with her name in the title perform the best.

As usual, the PG-13 pic drew audiences comprised largely of urban demos, with 72% of patrons black and 13% Hispanic. About 71% of its support came from females, and 65% of the pic’s patrons were age 25 and older.

“This monster opening demonstrates that Tyler remains one of the biggest stars in Hollywood,” Lionsgate distribution president Steve Rothenberg said.

“Fired Up” skewed 61% female, with 61% of patrons under 18 years old.
Sony execs emphasized that the pic’s production costs were modest, at less than $20 million.

“We’ll be OK,” Sony distribution president Rory Bruer said.

Looking ahead, two films are set for wide release next weekend: Disney’s music-filled “Jonas Brothers: The 3-D Concert” and Fox’s martial-arts actioner “Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li.”

Madea’ locks up top boxoffice spot

Biography

Personal life

Gleeson was born in Dublin, Ireland. He has said that he was an avid reader as a child. After leaving school, he worked for two years in an office with a health board. He later graduated from University College Dublin. Gleeson then worked for several years as a secondary school teacher in Belcamp College, in North County Dublin, where he taught English, Mathematics, and Drama.

Gleeson lives in Malahide, County Dublin. He and his wife, Mary, have been married since 1982 and have four sons, Domhnall, Fergus, Brian and Rory.

Gleeson is also a very talented fiddle player, with an interest in folklore. He is good friends with fellow Irish actors Liam Neeson, Stephen Rea and Cillian Murphy. He has long been known for his love of football and recounts tales of attempting to get a clear radio reception so he could listen to how his team, Aston Villa was faring on a Saturday.

Career

Gleeson started acting at the age of 34. He first came to prominence in Ireland for his role as Michael Collins in The Treaty a television film broadcast on RTÉ One, and for which he won a Jacob’s Award in 1992.

Gleeson has subsequently acted in more than 60 films including Braveheart, I Went Down, Michael Collins, Gangs of New York, Cold Mountain, 28 Days Later, Troy, Kingdom of Heaven, Lake Placid, Artificial Intelligence: AI and The Village. He won critical acclaim for his performance as Irish gangster Martin Cahill in John Boorman’s 1998 film The General.

While Gleeson played Michael Collins in The Treaty, he later portrayed Liam Tobin in the film Michael Collins with Liam Neeson taking the role of Collins.

“The first day I went to the set Liam came over to me and said ‘Here’s the real Michael Collins now, I’ll be picking your brains’.”

Ironically, Gleeson later went on to portray Collins’ nemesis Winston Churchill in Churchill at War.

“He was going to wipe us out. (Referring to the time of Michael Collins) I was in the TV film The Treaty so I knew what it was like to be on the other side of the table from Churchill. I had to think about it a lot before doing this.”

Gleeson frequently appears in the role of mentor or authority figure; he played Hogwarts professor Mad-Eye Moody in the fourth and fifth Harry Potter films, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Roger Ebert described him as having a “noble shambles of a face and the heft of a boxer gone to seed” in praising his performance in In Bruges, in which Gleeson played a mentor-like figure for Colin Farrell’s hitman., a role that garnered him his first Golden Globe nomination, among other accolades. Gleeson provides the voice of the Abbot in Brendan and the Secret of Kells, an animated film by Cartoon Saloon which premieres at the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival in February 2009.

He starred in the short film Six Shooter in 2006, which won an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short.

Other Information

• Born : March 29, 1955 (1955-03-29)
• Birth Place : Dublin, Ireland
• Spouse : Mary Gleeson

Links

• Brendan Gleeson at the Internet Movie Database
• Brendan Gleeson – Wikipedia.org

Incoming search terms:

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The CIA thriller made $24.6m (£17.3m) in its debut weekend, helping towards $1bn January takings for the first time in US cinema history.

Other new entries included The Uninvited, a remake of a South Korean thriller, at number three.

British Oscar hope Slumdog Millionaire was in sixth place.

The Mumbai-based film is moving into a wider release in the US, and has made a total of $67m (£47.1m) after 12 weeks in cinemas.

The movie’s director, Danny Boyle, won top prize from the Director’s Guild of America over the weekend.

Clint Eastwood’s film Gran Torino, which was overlooked in the Oscar nominations, has now made more than $110m (£77.4m) to become the actor-director’s highest-grossing film to date.

US box office returns in January were up more than 20% compared with the first month of 2008, while numbers of cinema-goers rose by 16%.

Paul Dergarabedian, president of box office analysts Media By Numbers, said: “I think people feel movies are a good value for their dollar. Going to a movie is a habit people aren’t willing to break.”

“This is exactly how you want to start a year,” he added.

Neeson thriller topples Mall Cop

Early life

Neeson was born in Ballymena, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, the son of Katherine “Kitty” (née Brown), a cook, and Barnard Neeson, a caretaker at the local Catholic boy’s primary school. He was called Liam, the Irish equivalent to William, after the local priest. He was the third child in the family and the only boy among four siblings; his sisters are Elizabeth, Bernadette and Rosaline. At age nine, Neeson began boxing lessons at the All Saints Youth Club, and later became Ulster amateur senior boxing champion. It was at age eleven that Neeson first stepped on stage. His English teacher gave him the lead role in a school play, which he accepted because the girl he fancied would be starring. From then on, he kept acting in school productions for the following years. His interest in acting and decision to become an actor was also influenced by Ian Paisley whose church Neeson would sneak into. Neeson has said of Paisley that “He had a magnificent presence and it was incredible to watch this six foot-plus man just bible-thumping away…It was acting but it was also great acting and stirring too. And his Baptisms skills are second to none.”

While at University, Neeson’s abilities as a talented footballer emerged which resulted in him being spotted by Bohemian FC manager Seán Thomas. Neeson travelled to Dublin for a trial with the club, and featured briefly when he came on as a substitute in a game against Shamrock Rovers, replacing Tony O’Connell. Neeson was not offered a contract at the club and that remained his only performance in professional soccer.

After leaving university, Neeson returned to Ballymena and worked in a variety of small jobs, from fork-lift operator at Guinness to truck driver. He also worked at a teacher-training college in Newcastle for two years before again returning to his hometown. Neeson would get his first film experience in 1973, playing Jesus Christ and Evangelist in the religious film, Pilgrim’s Progress directed by Ken Anderson. After a bet from co-workers at the architects’ office where he worked, Neeson applied for an audition at the Lyric Players’ Theatre in Belfast. After two years there, Neeson moved to Dublin and joined the Abbey Theatre in 1977. In 1980, film-maker John Boorman saw him on stage, acting as Lennie Small in Of Mice and Men, and offered him the part of Sir Gawain in the upcoming Arthurian movie, Excalibur. After Excalibur, Neeson moved to London, where he continued working on stage, small budget movies and TV series. He lived with the actress Helen Mirren at this time, whom he met working on Excalibur. Between 1982 and 1987, Neeson starred in five films; mostly notably alongside Mel Gibson and Anthony Hopkins in 1984′s The Bounty.

In 1987, Neeson made a conscious decision to move to Hollywood in order to star in high-profile roles. That year, he starred alongside Cher and Dennis Quaid in crime thriller, Suspect. The role would bring Neeson critics’ applause, but it was 1990′s Darkman that would bring his name to the public attention. Although the film gained success, Neeson’s following years would not give him the same recognition. In 1993, he joined Ellis Island co-star, and future wife, Natasha Richardson in the Broadway play, Anna Christie. (They also worked together in Nell, released the following year.) Director Steven Spielberg, impressed by his performance, offered him the coveted role of Oskar Schindler, in the upcoming film about The Holocaust, Schindler’s List. His critically acclaimed performance later earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor; however, the award went to Tom Hanks for his performance in Philadelphia. Neeson also garnered BAFTA and Golden Globes nominations for Schindler’s List.

Schindler’s List established Neeson as a widely sought after leading actor. He later starred in period pieces Rob Roy (1995) and Michael Collins (1996), the latter earning him another Golden Globes nomination and a win for Best Starring Role at the Venice Film Festival. Neeson went onto star as Jean Valjean in the 1998 adaptation of Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables and in The Haunting (1999) as Dr. David Marrow.

The film follows an ex-CIA “Preventer”, who is faced with recovering his daughter after she is kidnapped by human trafficking|sex-traffickers in Paris, France.

Bryan (Liam Neeson), a former secret agent living in the US. He is skilled in hand to hand combat, divorced; and loves his 17-year-old daughter Kim (Maggie Grace) who lives with his ex-wife and her new husband Stuart (Xander Berkeley). Kim wants to take a vacation in Europe with her friend Amanda (Katie Cassidy), and together follow U2′s European tour. Kim’s mother allows this, but Kim also needs permission from her father. Since Kim fears that Bryan will not consent, she pretends that they will only stay in Paris. Reluctantly, Bryan agrees.

In Paris a seemingly friendly young man named Peter (Nicolas Giraud) proposes to share a taxi with them to the house where Kim and her friend are staying, and so they do. However, the man works for an Albanian Mafia|Albanian criminal organization, to which he reports the address.

In the house, after a few minutes Kim receives a phone call from her father, where she then goes to the bathroom. She then sees from the bathroom window, men entering the room and abducting Amanda. Bryan is able to gain critical information about the kidnappers in the final moments after Kim is kidnapped by telling her to shout out everything about them that she notices. Briefly Bryan talks to one of the kidnappers, telling him that if they let his daughter go he will not pursue them, before the man smashes his daughters phone.

Using his contacts in the CIA and the business connections of his ex-wifes husband, Bryan travels to Paris to find her, informed that the kidnappers are sex-slavers and that he has only 96 hours to recover his daughter before she will disappear forever. The particular kidnapper he talked is revealed to be an Albanian named Marco.

Under the eye of Jean-Claude, himself a former operative and now deputy director of Internal Security, Bryan locates the kidnappers, first by using the digitial photos off the smashed remains of Kims phone to locate Peter who is later killed while Bryan pursues him. By hassling prostitutes Bryan is threatened by an Albanian mobster and is able to plant a covert listening device on him. Using a translator he finds that the kidnappers have a brothel in a nearby construction site.

Once arriving, Bryan acts like a customer, and after making his way inside begins to search for Kim. Unfortunately, he only finds her jacket, on another woman. He then is discovered and has to escape with the girl.

Nursing the girl back to health from an involuntary drug addiction, Bryan finds out where the kidnappers took her after she was abducted. Bryan heads to the address, and though he doesn’t find Kim, he does find Marco, subduing him and killing most of the kidnappers. He searches for Kim, but instead finds Amanda, handcuffed to a bed and dead due to a heroin overdose. Torturing Marco, Bryan is able to ascertain that Kim was sold to a man named Saint Clair.

Bryan visits Jean-Claude’s home and its dinner time there. However Jean, failing to have Bryan arrested for the mess he has caused at Paris, carries his gun to the dinner table. Jean angrily points the gun at Bryan when accused of complicity in his daughters abduction. Bryan has already unloaded the gun and shoots Jean’s wife on her arm and, holding Jean, discovers the location of Saint Clair from him.

Acting as a police officer he gains entry to the building where new girls are being sold. When he sees his daughter being sold, he forces one of the buyers to purchase her, but is captured and knocked unconscious moments later. Suspended from the ceiling, Saint Clair questions his identity before leaving his security guards to execute him. Bryan escapes and kills them before finding Saint Clair, murdering him after learning that his daughter is being taken by Arab clients. Bryan manages to track down the car his daughter is being taken in and finds out that she is taken away on a large motorboat. He jumps on to the ship from a bridge and eliminates all the people inside, finally freeing his daughter.

Back in the US, Kim is reunited with her mother. Bryan introduces her to a pop Diva, Sheerah, (Holly Valance) whom he saved at the beginning of the film from a knife attack while working security, Kim having an audition with the Diva’s vocal coach.

Other Information

• Production Status:  Released
• Genres:  Action/Adventure, Art/Foreign, Drama and Thriller
• Running Time:  1 hr. 34 min.
• Release Date:  January 30th, 2009
• MPAA Rating:  PG-13 for intense sequences of violence, disturbing thematic material, sexual content, some drug references and language.
• Distributors:  20th Century Fox Distribution
• Production Co.:  EuropaCorp, M6 Films, Grive Productions
• Financiers:  Studio Canal, TPS Star
• Filming Locations:  Paris, France
• Produced in:  France

Cast and Credits

• Starring: Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, Leland Orser, Anjul Nigam, Jon Gries
• Directed by:  Pierre Morel
• Produced by:  Didier Hoarau, Luc Besson, Pierre-Ange Le Pogam