Universal Soldiers

Initial rights holders Universal first floated the idea of an A-Team film a mere nine years after the show went off the air.

It was early days, but the studio seemed convinced it had a winner on its hands.

With original producer Cannell on hand to guide the early development, Variety reported that the studio had hired Under Siege 2 co-writer Richard Hatem to bash out the first draft of a script for what Cannell says will be “on par with any other major action release.”

But hopefully better than Under Siege 2, right?

And just who was being considered for Hannibal at the time? Only one of the biggest movie stars going – Mel Gibson.

Plus, because no genre project with a history can be announced without nods to former cast members-turned-icons, the studio later said it wanted Mr T, Dwight Schultz and Dirk Benedict to have cameos.

Over the years, this fan-baiting mention of cameos has never quite gone away, though it remains to be seen if any of the remaining original cast actually sign up.

But despite Universal’s enthusiasm, nothing every seemed to really come of the studio’s work on the film, and it slipped into development hell…

Until the year 2000, that is.

Next: Into the Fox hole