On paper, Joe Carnahan’s The A-Team really should have launched a multi-film franchise. The director was an up-and-coming talent having helmed fan favorite thrillers Narc and Smokin’ Aces, while the lineup of the titular team boasted the ideal balance that any marketable brand should be striving for when casting its lead roles.
Liam Neeson, who was cinema’s biggest action hero at the time coming off the success of Taken, led the crew with a mix of gravitas and grizzled badassery, while Bradley Cooper was the handsome and charismatic rising star just on the cusp of the A-list, with Sharlto Copley ticking the box marked ‘eccentric character actor’ and Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson providing a blend of muscle and comic relief.
Sadly, it wasn’t to be, and the movie flopped at the box office after earning just over $177 million on a $110 million budget. However, over the last couple of weeks, insider Daniel Richtman has claimed that The A-Team is set to be rebooted by reporting that Will Smith was being eyed for an unspecified role, while also offering that an all-female version is in the works, although few details were provided in regards to either.
The tipster now says The A-Team‘s theatrical return will be inspired by the Fast & Furious series, which at least makes a lot of sense. After all, the famous scene from Carnahan’s blockbuster where the gang essentially flies a tank is straight out of the Dominic Toretto playbook, and it happened a year before Justin Lin’s Fast Five reinvented The Fast Saga as a string of increasingly preposterous action epics. Of course, there’s no A-Team movie officially in development as of yet, but there are definitely worse places to draw influence from should it move forward.
