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.

Carnahan said of filming in the bitter cold of Vancouver and the Northern British Columbia region:

“It gets to be 30 below, and when we went out the other day, I took off my hat to see how long I could last, and my skin was burning with frostbite in a little over a minute.  In a way, it’s great, because it beats the shit out of the cast and that suits the storyline.”

Carnahan also says that he enjoys the freedom of shooting an indie and not having to worry about making a set release date.  He added that The Grey is about one-fifth the budget of A-Team.

And as for the kind of film The Grey is looking to be, Carnahan says it's in the vein of great man vs. nature movies like Deliverance and Touching the Void.  As a fan of not only The A-Team, but Carnahan's previous films Narc and Smokin' Aces, I can't wait to see what he'll deliver with The Grey.