“In 1972, a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Los Angeles underground. Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire... The A-Team.”
Mind you, you’ll have to wait until 2010 now, after Fox today pushed back the release date of their long-awaited adaptation of the classic ‘80s TV show.
It’s hardly surprising, to be honest. The A-Team movie has been on the summer 2009 schedule for a while now, but with no director (John Singleton has bailed after Fox decided the script needed more work) and cast (Tyrese Gibson had been cast as BA Baracus, but has also now headed to splitsville), it was never going to make it and has now headed to July 11, 2010.
It’s a shame, but if Fox thinks they need some time to plan the successful return of Hannibal, Face, Murdoch and BA, then we’re happy with that. After all, we love it when a plan comes together.
But The A-Team isn’t the only Fox project to go whizzing around the release schedules like a kid after too much sugar.
Fox has also announced that the Alvin & The Chipmunks sequel – or, as it’s actually, genuinely, we’re-not-making-this-up known, Alvin & The Chipmunks: The Squeakuel – will debut on Christmas Day 2009.
The Tooth Fairy – the high-concept comedy with Rock ‘The Dwayne’ Johnson as a hockey player forced to become a tooth fairy for a week – has moved from a June date to the Thanksgiving frame. It will now open on November 13 of next year.
And, to fill the A-Team and Tooth Fairy-sized gap in the summer, Fox has moved Chris Columbus’ comedy, I Love You Beth Cooper, to July 10 from March 27, and adventure comedy They Came From Upstairs from Feb 13 to July 31.
Oh, and Columbus’ Percy Jackson And The Lightning Thief to July 2, 2010, the same date as kids’ novel adaptation, Ramona. Expect one of those to move before long.
We’re also hearing reports that Fox chief Tom Rothman has been so caught up in the frenzy of change that he’s moved the sofa in his office closer to the window, and that he may have changed the screensaver on his computer. Obviously, we’ll try to bring you confirmation of this as soon as we can.