With director Joe Carnahan’s (Narc, Smokin’ Aces, and The A-Team) awesome survival-action flick The Grey now playing, I recently got the chance to talk with the cast and Carnahan about making the movie.  Starring Liam Neeson, Dallas Roberts, James Badge Dale, Dermot Mulroney, Frank Grillo, Nonso Anozie, and Joe Anderson, The Grey is about a group of oilmen who have crash landed in the hunting zone of a rogue pack of wolves in the Alaskan tundra.  If you’re a fan of the cast, Carnahan, or just well made movies, The Grey will not disappoint.

During the press junket I got to talk to Carnahan twice. The first time was just about making The Grey.  However, when we spoke the second time, we talked about deleted scenes, what his friends and family screening told him about the movie (especially what he learned from Warrior director Gavin O’Connor), why Liam Neeson is a great action star, what’s up with Mark Millar‘s Nemesis (and how Neeson would be a perfect Blake Morrow), Killing Pablo, and reveals that he’d written the opening of the The A-Team Sequel that he planned had the first film done better commercially.  Hit the jump to watch.

Director Joe Carnahan is currently doing the press rounds for his new survival thriller The Grey starring Liam Neeson. Steve recently got the chance to sit down with the director for an extended exclusive interview, and while we’ve already shared what he had to say about the Nemesis movie and his long-gestating Pablo Escobar drama Killing Pablo, today we wanted to share a few tidbits on what Carnahan had planned for the opening of The A-Team sequel.  While the director’s feature film version of the popular 1980s television series opened in 2010 and did fair business at the box office, it unfortunately wasn’t popular enough to warrant a sequel.

However, when speaking with Steve, the director revealed his detailed plan for a pretty ambitious opening to the sequel, and talked about why he thinks the first film didn’t meet box office expectations. Hit the jump to see what he had to say.

After the big-budget, dumb-fun fare of The A-Team, director Joe Carnahan is going back to gritty indie fare with The Grey.  The film centers on a group of oil-rig roughnecks who survive a plane crash.  Normally, that makes you one of the luckiest people on the planet.  Unfortunately for this group, their plane happens to crash right in the middle of a hunting zone of a rogue pack of wolves in the Alaskan tundra.  As we previously reported, Liam Neeson will lead the film, and according to Deadline, he’ll be joined by Dallas Roberts (Rubicon), James Badge Dale (Rubicon), Dermot Mulroney (Inhale),  Frank Grillo (My Soul to Take), Nonso Anozie (RocknRolla), and Joe Anderson (The Crazies).

The film now has a green light and production will begin next week.  Hit the jump for what Carnahan had to say about the film.

They don’t make action movies like they used to. Two decades ago, Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Jean-Claude Van Damme were movie stars. Now action movies are mostly event films, so they tend to deal with fantasy situations. Comic book heroes using superpowers, et cetera. Or in Stallone’s case, direct pleas of nostalgia. Where the standard action movie – something like Red or The Losers – is considered second tier material (both also based on comic books). Such may explain why Joe Carnahan’s massively entertaining The A-Team was not a hit. Starring Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, and Sharlto Copley as the titular team – they are military vets who are set up for a crime they didn’t commit. Patrick Wilson and Jessica Biel also co-star. My review of the Blu-ray of The A-Team after the jump.

Joe Carnahan’s adaptation of 1980’s The A-Team was met on release with a certain amount of derision from both critics and audiences unsure of what to make of the film. I’ll admit that on first viewing I found The A-Team to be silly and cartoony. But upon further reflection, the film has begun to grow in my eyes. My initial complaints of the film as silly and/or cartoony seem downright moot, if not just plain misguided. For the film is a silly live action cartoon. Scenes that initially bugged me in theaters – like the heavily promoted tank drop sequence or the climax wherein The A-Team perform three-card Monte with freights – become downright hilarious on repeat viewings. My initial skepticism has given way to a newfound respect and enjoyment towards the film.

So it was my great fortune to attend a press event for the upcoming release of The A-Team on DVD and Blu-ray. At the event, Carnahan spoke of his approach to The A-Team and how the film was meant to be viewed, as well as showed a couple of behind-the-scenes features on the disc and a deleted sequence that can be found included in The A-Team Extended Cut (also included within the DVD and Blu-ray). Afterwards I was able to interview Carnahan one on one – where he talked of other cut sequences now included in the extended cut, the thematic undercurrents of his filmography, the future of The A-Team, and his upcoming Liam Neeson vs. wolves film The Grey. Hit the jump for more.

Just in time for the holidays, the adrenaline-fueled thrill ride The A-Team is being released on Blu-ray with more action and more adventure, in a never-before-seen extended version of the film. Even if you’ve already seen the blockbuster about a daring team of former Special Forces soldiers who are convicted by a military court for a crime they didn’t commit, and then later break out of prison, only to tackle their toughest mission yet, there is still plenty on the disc to newly discover, including deleted scenes, a gag reel, character chronicles, a mash-up montage, and commentary from director Joe Carnahan and visual effects supervisor James E. Price.

In this exclusive interview with Collider, actor Sharlto Copley talked about how much he enjoyed taking on the role of Captain H.M. Murdock, the fun he had doing behind the scenes stuff for the Blu-ray release, and how playing this character brought up a lot of memories from his childhood. He also talked about how humbled and grateful he is for the success he’s had in his career since District 9, how he’s looking forward to re-teaming with director Neill Blomkamp for the super-secret Elysium, and that he’s looking at and considering doing Men in Black 3, but contrary to the rumor, still hasn’t signed onto the project yet. Check out what he had to say after the jump:

While it feels like we’re always highlighting minimalist movie posters, for today’s cool poster article, we’ve got some awesome alternative Star Wars posters, as well as a line of TV show posters called “quote series” featuring The A-Team, Battlestar Galactica, Knight Rider and Superman 2.

What’s also great about the Star Wars posters is all the alternative designs are based on other famous movie posters.  For Star Wars they used Full Metal Jacket, The Empire Strikes Back used Goodfellas, and Return of the Jedi used American Beauty.  In addition, you can check out some retro boxing posters using Star Wars characters as contestants.

Hit the jump to check out the posters:

The reign of the weak box office came to an end this weekend with the debut of two much-hyped 1980s reboots: The Karate Kid and The A-Team. Early projections had the two titles in a tight race but, instead, the kid easily fly-kicked his way into first place with more than double what the team took in.

After two weeks of disappointing returns, it looks like the summer box office season will get some of its mojo back this weekend, thanks mainly to a surprisingly robust performance by The Karate Kid. Sony’s reboot of the 1984 classic took in an estimated $18.8 million on Friday from its 3,663 locations – nearly double the studio’s most optimistic estimates. That means that, with a nice Saturday bump, the solidly-PG flick is looking at a weekend total as high as $55 million. The forecast is not quite as sunny for the week’s other revamped release – The A-Team. The TV retread rolled out on Friday, picking up an estimated $9.5 million from 3,535 theatres. With a three day estimate of only $28 million projected, Fox may want to start looking into their “Plan B” right about now. Oh right. There is no Plan B. Full weekend details when you check back tomorrow.

20th Century Fox  has unleashed an action-oozing new clip from the forthcoming A-Team movie.  The new footage is crammed with all sorts of explosive, exploding, detonating, and blowing up pyrotechnic awesomeness.  The clip is also pretty hilarious, focusing on Sharlto Copley’s (District 9) deranged “Howling Mad” Murdock and his unusual approach to wound stitching and other insane antics. Usually these quaint blurbs promoting upcoming movies do little to stimulate me, but this clip was genuinely funny. The action seems like it’s going to be video game over the top, but the manner in which it’s presented is compelling me to want to see this flick with the quickness.  All of the footage up to now has left me feeling “meh” about the A-Team movie, but now I’m ready to carve a mowhawk into my hair and see if director Joe Carnahan’s plan comes together. The A-Team lands in theaters near you June 11^th. Hit the jump to check out the clip.

20th Century Fox has released the full press kit for The A-Team which includes a few new images from the Joe Carnahan film.  Like I said yesterday when I posted 8 clips from the movie, I got to see The A-Team and it’s exactly what I wanted it to be.  This is a good thing. If you’re looking for two hours of almost non-stop action and getting to see some crazy shit that can only happen on a movie screen, this is the film for you.  And with that…hit the jump to check out the new images.  The A-Team stars Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson, Jessica Biel, Patrick Wilson, and Jessica Biel and it gets released June 11.

20th Century Fox has released 8 movie clips from  director Joe Carnahan’s The A-Team which stars Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson, Jessica Biel, Patrick Wilson, and Jessica Biel.  We posted 3 of the clips yesterday, but in case you missed them, all 8 are after the jump.

I actually got to see The A-Team earlier today and it’s exactly what I wanted it to be.  This is a good thing. If you’re looking for two hours of almost non-stop action and getting to see some crazy shit that can only happen on a movie screen, this is the film for you.  I can’t say anymore right now without Fox getting mad at me.  Hit the jump for the clips.  The A-Team gets released June 11.

20th Century Fox has released three clips from director Joe Carnahan’s The A-Team.  Starring Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson, Jessica Biel, Patrick Wilson, and Jessica Biel, The A-Team gets released June 11.

With the press junket for The A-Team this weekend here in Los Angeles, the movie has started to screen for the junket press.  What that means is…you can expect people’s reactions to start hitting Twitter and Facebook very soon.  I’m actually looking forward to the movie and I’m covering the junket, so look for a lot of A-Team coverage in the coming days.  Until then…watch the clips after the jump:

A bunch of new movie posters have recently hit the net, and while we usually post them as separate articles, I’ve decided to group them all in one place.  Included in the assortment are posters for Buried, Toy Story 3, The A-Team, Get Him to the Greek, and Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage.

Almost all of the posters are international, but the Buried and Rush posters are domestic.  Of the assortment, Buried is easily the best as it’s not only an original poster, but it conveys what the movie is about with one image.  Check all of them out after the jump.

Sharlto Copley, who made one of the all-time best acting debuts with his performance in Neill Blomkamp’s Oscar-nominated District 9, in talks to star in the sci-fi flick I Am Number Four.  Based off the young-adult science fiction book by James Frey and Jobie Hughes, the film is about Four (played by Beastly‘s Alex Pettyfer), one of nine aliens who escape their home planet before its annihilation by a rival species and hide out on Earth disguised as human high schoolers.  According to Heat Vision, Copley will play, “a man who hailed from the alien world’s serving class but now is the title character’s adult guardian and mentor.”

The script is by Smallville creators Al Gough and Miles Millar and comes from a planned six-book series to be introduced this fall.  D.J. Caruso (Eagle Eye) is attached to direct and Steven Spielberg will produce the film with Michael Bay.  Copley will next be seen this summer in Joe Carnahan’s adaptation of The A-Team.