'Taken 3' has ''nothing'' to do with Liam Neeson and his family.

Producer Luc Besson admits the forthcoming thriller starring the Hollywood hunk is hugely different from the first two films which centre on his daughter and wife being kidnapped.

Talking to collider.com, he explained: ''['Taken 3'] is shooting right now. Taken 1 and 2 is, in fact, the same film in two parts. The first act, someone is taken, and the second act is that revenge. You can see the films back to back and they go together. The third film is another story that has nothing to do with him and his family. No one is taken. The dog is not taken. It's another story with the same characters.''

Besson - who co-wrote the script with Robert Mark Kamen for the follow-up to 2012's film - insists the success of the 2008 original came as a surprise and they weren't expecting it to be as well received as it had been.

He added: ''It's different, but it's very good. It's probably the best of the three for me, in terms of the script. The first one was really not pretentious. It was a small film. We were surprised by the success of it because it was honest. Liam [Neeson] was not a super kick-ass actor.''