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Fox, Ridley Scott Apparently Reviving 'A-Team' For Real This Time

STV — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 11:55:52 EST

A year after Fox inflated and mercilessly dashed a few hundred Americans' hopes of a big-screen A-Team adaptation, behold the promise of a new start — with surprisingly, almost bafflingly influential connections.

Ridley and Tony Scott have reportedly assumed control of the reboot, co-producing for writer-director Joe Carnahan in anticipation of a summer 2010 opening. That's a full year behind the schedule Fox initially drew up for John Singleton, who inherited and soon putzed the project away within a few months last spring. And while you can't keep a good rehash down in Hollywood, the usual loss of quality with every creative generation hinted at more of a Joel Schumacher plan D than this kind of action pedigree. Fox is serious!

And, per Variety, so is Ridley Scott: "Tony and I feel that marrying this Scott Free project with Joe's sensibility will result in a fast-paced, exciting franchise, one we hope will be around for years to come," the director told the trade. Yes — "years to come," likely building on the postmodern Dark Knight template making the world safe for brooding, mercenary war vets and the retrofitted vans carting them from assignment to assignment. With a lot of work and a little luck, Oscar will be snubbing this American institution, too, by 2013.

Fox assembles 'A-Team' [Variety]

Mr. T Still Has It After All These Years

Douglas Reinhardt — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 18:35:00 EDT

boomp3.com

Sporting twin bandoliers filled with Snickers bars, 80s icon Mr. T recently resurfaced on the Australian arm wrestling circuit. Inspired by the Sylvester Stallone film, Over The Top, The A-Team star sought out the roughest, toughest, meanest arm wrestling scene in all of the world, which lead T to the land Down Under. Mr .T said, "I pity the fool that thinks M.M.A. is tough. Arm Wrestling is where it's at. People wrestling for real life things like children and Snickers bars."

[Photo Credit: Bauer-Griffin]

*A Call To The Bullpen is a work of fiction. Although the pictures we use are most certainly real, Defamer does not purport that any of the incidents or quotations you see in this piece actually happened. Lighten up, people ... it's a joke.

John Singleton Brings Impossible Dream of 'A-Team' Adaptation to Screen

STV — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 14:40:28 EDT

We've long believed that of all of Mr. T's deeply subversive acting work of the '80s, nothing demands a more serious reappraisal through the prism of contemporary social issues than The A-Team. Especially an A-Team directed by John Singleton, whom Fox has nabbed for its feature-length adaptation to open in summer 2009. Alas, with the updating reportedly focusing on a group of Iraq War veterans railroaded for a crime they didn't commit, Singleton requires a kinder, gentler, less gold-plated 'Nam vet anti-hero B.A. Baracus to carpool his batch of mercenaries in that famous black van.

Longtime Singleton cohort Ice Cube is the natural choice for the job, but at 38, is he too old? Woody Harrelson has likewise been rumored to sign on as Baracus' fool nemesis Howlin' Mad Murdock; that'll never happen. We'd rather see the races and roles reversed, actually, perhaps with an especially loco Tracy Morgan taunting Ryan Gosling's brooding, post-traumatic-stress-addled Murdock, with their nurturing mentor Hannibal Smith, played by a begloved Alec Baldwin, philosophizing over cheap cigars and the glory days of the first Iraq War. Surely Luke Wilson can clear space in his schedule for a postmodern turn as smooth operator Faceman. The short-lived journalist Amy Allen could stand to make a revival as well — perhaps Winona Ryder can bring her refurbished CVS Drama School gifts to the formidable boy's club, assuming she can avoid community service.

'A-Team' on Fox's slate [Variety]