As the "S" in Dreamworks SKG, Steven Spielberg is in a position to be Hollywood's most influential storyteller. Having produced over 80 films or television shows and directed more than 40, he is one of the most recognised names in moviemaking today. Spielberg is given credit for spawning The Summer Blockbuster movie with 1975's Jaws.
For him to produce Taken should come as no surprise. Speilberg has worked on Alien Invasion movies for nearly 40 years. One of his earlier projects was 1964's Firelight, which depicts aliens invading a small town. In 1977, he shows the world how to make a scary movie without much scarieness when he made Close Encounters of the Third Kind. In 1982, he dipped his pen into the alien invasion genre once again with the family favorite E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial. In 1997, Spielberg Produced Men in Black, which depicts two secret agents (portrayed by Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones) who must keep the fact that Aliens live among us a secret. In 2001, Steven Spielberg produced Evolution, which starred X-Files veteran David Duchovny.
Steven Spielberg has also worked on science fiction films that don't have much to do with Alien Invasion. Between the Back To The Future Trilogy, both Gremlins movies, Poltergeist, and Arachnophobia, Steven Spielberg has told enough science fiction stories to span an entire career.
He didn't reach critical acclaim with Science Fiction, though. That came with 1974's Sugarland Express, a movie about a woman trying to regain custody of her daughter after being released from prison (starred Goldie Hawn).