Liam Neeson famous movie line used for hilarious real estate ad in giant mural

An Irish artist has immortalized Liam Neeson with a tongue-in-cheek mural . Johnny Hamilton, known as Jossie Pops, hopes passers-by will be Taken with his latest work featuring the acting icon who is from neighboring Co Antrim .

Johnny, from Bangor, is eager for Neeson to lay eyes on his most recent masterpiece - a mural of the popular Hollywood star which is currently adorning the gable wall of Independent Property Estates in the Co Down city.

The artwork features Neeson's memorable "I will find you" line from the hit movie Taken . Johnny has previously painted murals of Irish singers Foy Vance and Snow Patrol's Gary Lightbody, but went more comical with this one.

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"With the Liam Neeson one, it was just more to create humor and have a bit of fun with it," Johnny told Belfast Telegraph. "It was [the building owner and managing director] Michael Rushe's idea to play on the words 'I will find you' , because they're an estate agents, and people are finding the joke in it, so it's tongue-in-cheek humour .

"Everyone knows him for that line. And then there are wee brackets at the bottom saying 'a property', just to really direct people to the estate agents but it's serving its purpose.

"The business sees the value of putting art on the side of its building , which will bring people to it. And on a business level, they're getting their logo in every photo people take of the [artwork]."

Michael went on: "I approached Johnny and said, ' Let's do something that has a property twist .' It's been great to see the feedback we've got out of it. It has been exceptional to say the least."

The original request was for Johnny to depict Elvis Presley or Muhammad Ali, but the local man was adamant that Northern Irish celebs would take centre stage , namely to attract more people to Bangor - especially Americans.

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"There was a bit of criticism as to why the Neeson mural was in Bangor," Johnny explained. "'Why not Ballymena? 'But we sort of thought of this idea of Bangor as the city of faces .

"Bangor is failing to get footfall because of the failed Queen's Parade. I think if we had an attraction which brought people into Bangor, that could be massive for tourism .

"You could get Liam Neeson's traffic. He's an A-lister, so he's going to bring a lot of footfall from America. They love him so much."

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The hope is that Neeson, 72, who predominantly resides in New York City , will swing by the mural on his next trip home. Johnny went on: " We're praying we could get Liam Neeson down to it . I'm quietly confident.

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"I think at this stage he's seen it. If he's an art critic and wants to come down and critique it , that would be brilliant or if he just wants to enjoy us celebrating him as a hero in Northern Ireland , that would be great, too."

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