Jessica Biel and Sharlto Copley Join 'The A-Team'
Filed under: Action, Comedy, Thrillers, Casting, 20th Century Fox, Newsstand, Remakes and Sequels, War
Once the talks are done and the ink is dry, Joe Carnahan and Ridley Scott will have their The A-Team assembled. According to Variety*, Sharlto Copley (better known as Wikus Van De Merwe in District 9) and Jessica Biel have been enlisted into the cast, which already includes Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson.If you know your A-Team, you can probably guess who Copley is playing: Howling Mad Murdock. He was the team's edgy and unpredictable helicopter pilot, always freshly escaped from the mental asylum just in time for an adventure. It was never clear if he was truly mentally unstable and friends with an invisible dog, or if it was all an act. (Somewhere, there is a student who did a paper comparing Murdock to Hamlet, and somewhere a teacher flunked him unfairly.) If you saw District 9, you know Copley is perfect for the part, so there's no need to say anything more other than "That's so cool! May he become a big star!"
Biel's character is actually quite interesting. While she's the "former love interest" of Cooper's Faceman, she's not just the obligatory girl who is only there to remind you that their love is just brotherly. She's actually a general in the U.S. Army bent on capturing our heart-of-gold mercenaries. Will her love for Cooper's blue eyes and just-so hair win her back, and see her actually join the A-Team for the inevitable sequel? Will she always be the villain of the series, finding them just when they think they're safe? We'll know soon, The A-Team begins shooting later this fall in Vancouver, and will hit theaters June 11, 2010.
[*We have to give a shoutout to Blackfilm, who first landed the Copley scoop. Good work, gang.]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-16-2009 @ 10:19AM
Drewbacca said...
I realize this is petty, but I genuinely hope Biel's character isn't a General - simply for the fact that it takes an average of 20 years of military service before an officer is even considered to become a Brigadier General. (Maybe a Lt. Colonel or something)
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9-17-2009 @ 11:35AM
Diana said...
I hate it when girls are brought in to be the nominal love interest for one of the leads. Movies like The Dirty Dozen and The Great Escape show that it is better not to have women in your movie than to have them written badly. As a woman, I would like to either see a well-written woman or to not have a woman thrown in there at all. The fact that Biel is a horrible actress just accentuates the badness of including a female character just for the sake of adding a romantic element that was not present in the original show.
Also, as Drewbacca wrote, she's a general? In her mid-20s?! Pass.
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9-16-2009 @ 1:08PM
Batzarro said...
Even I'm not sure if Biel can even pull off "military". Thought to be fair, it's not like A Team is some down to earth gritty docu-drama.
Also, well player with Sharlton.
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9-16-2009 @ 2:50PM
Dan said...
I'm not the biggest fan of Biel, but no complaints here...I think they put together one hell of a cast for the Team (haven't made up my mind about the UFC cat for B.A. but at least he looks the part). The more I hear about this, the more psyched I am about it....I think they hit all the right notes with the casting, and this was icing on the cake. I loved District 9 and expect big things from Copley.
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9-16-2009 @ 5:31PM
Lynwood said...
I look forward to seeing this! The A-Team! Yes Sir! Perhaps Sanford and Son THE MOVIE! Will be heading to the big screens. With the right cast and story line will make a great must see. Drama, suspense and comedy!
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How about seeing Madea and Fred Sanford going at it! Can you imagine Fred Sanford saying this to Madea? Madea! To this very day! Doctors don’t know what you are! But your birth certificate says! Very large and very ugly!
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9-16-2009 @ 5:36PM
dishesaredone said...
This thing has 2 hours of predictable banality written all over it.
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