Into The Fox Hole

Yes, as the world breathed a sigh of relief that every computer hadn’t suddenly stopped working or decided to do a Skynet and attempt to destroy humanity with the dawn of Y2K, the A-Team film was slumbering deeply in the vaults of turnaround.

But in August of 2000, Top Cow productions (the movie arm of the comic book company) saw their chance and snagged the rights, selling them to Fox 2000. And with Charlie’s Angels hitting it big, it seems only natural that the team would be back in focus.

"The A-Team will be a live-action feature. It will be totally re-imagined, with a contemporary feel,” Top Cow’s Spike Seldin told Variety. “It will likely have substantially younger characters than its forerunner."

"It'll be a big-budget movie," he says. "A lot like what they did with Mission: Impossible and Charlie's Angels, we're going to do with this."

The Universal script drafts were jettisoned and the film (with Cannell still aboard) began a new with Kevin Brodbin (The Glimmer Man) the latest writer shoved into the pit to attempt an adaptation.

One element didn’t vanish completely, though – Gibson was still apparently the top choice for Hannibal, per an announcement in 2001.

He was joined by some new rumoured cast mates, with Brendan Fraser (above) touted as Face, Taye Diggs as BA and Owen Wilson apparently ready to sign on as Murdock.

It sounded like a dream team. But it never quite came together.

The next few years would be relatively quiet in terms of actual news, but that didn’t stop Fox and Cannell plugging away.

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