The A-Team Movie Interview

The A-Team Movie

Cast: Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Quinton 'Rampage' Jackson, Sharlto Copley, Jessica Biel, Patrick Wilson, Gerald McRaney
Director: Joe Carnahan
Genre: Action, Adventure
Rated: M
Running Time: 117 minutes

Synopsis: The A-Team follows the exciting and daring exploits of a colorful team of former Special Forces soldiers who were set up for a crime they did not commit. Going 'rogue', they utilise their unique talents to try and clear their names and find the true culprit. Liam Neeson (Taken), Bradley Cooper (The Hangover), mixed martial arts champ Quinton 'Rampage' Jackson, and District 9 sensation Sharlto Copley, are 'The A-Team.'

Release Date: 10th of June, 2010
Website: www.ateam-movie.com

Based on the seminal '80s television series, The A-Team follows the daring exploits of a colorful unit of former Special Forces soldiers who were set up for a crime they did not commit. Determined to clear their names, Col. Hannibal Smith and his elite team are forced to go underground to search out those responsible for a boldly executed high-stakes heist.

Liam Neeson, whose many credits include the Oscar-winning Schindler's List and the recent box office hit Taken, portrays Hannibal Smith, a master planner of inventive missions requiring split-second timing, unusual skills and a team of incredibly proficient and … eccentric . . . soldiers; Bradley Cooper, who shot to movie superstardom in the smash comedy The Hangover, is Templeton "Face" Peck, who can procure anything for the Team's unorthodox and daring activities; Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, a professional mixed martial artist and a top rated UFC light heavyweight, is B.A. Baracas, the Team's driver and muscle; and Sharlto Copley, who starred in the hit District 9, is H.M "Howlin' Mad" Murdock, a gifted pilot - and certified loon. Jessica Biel (The Illusionist) stars as Capt. Charisa Sosa, a former love interest of Face's, but who's now relentlessly pursuing the Team for a crime not of their doing. Patrick Wilson (Watchmen) is a mysterious CIA operative, Lynch, who is a key player in the Team's most explosive mission. The cast of The A-Team also features Gerald McRaney (HBO's Deadwood) as General Morrison, Hannibal's friend and mentor; and Brian Bloom (Smokin' Aces) as Pike, a shadowy private military contractor.

Joe Carnahan (Narc, Smokin' Aces) directs from a screenplay by Skip Woods (X-Men Origins: Wolverine), Joe Carnahan, and Joe Carnahan's writing partner Brian Bloom, based on the television series The A-Team. The producers are Ridley Scott, Tony Scott, Jules Daly, Stephen J. Cannell, Alex Young, Iain Smith, and Spike Seldin.

Heading the creative team collaborating with Joe Carnahan behind the scenes are: director of photography Mauro Fiore (Academy Award winner for Avatar); production designer Charles Wood (The Italian Job); editor Roger Barton (Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen); editor Jim May (G.I. Joe: The Rise of the Cobra); and costume designer Betsy Heimann (Almost Famous).

About the Story
The A-Team was one of the most popular and successful television series to come out of the '80s. Created by Stephen J. Cannell and Frank Lupo, the series focused on the exploits of a team of four Vietnam veterans who, sentenced by a military court for a crime they didn't commit, head underground and become soldiers of fortune. Led by a cigar-chomping Col. John "Hannibal" Smith, played by George Peppard, the team acted on the side of good and helped the oppressed while trying to clear their names. The series, which ran from 1983 to 1987 (for a total of 98 episodes), garnered a large and enthusiastic following, eventually attaining cult status and making household names out of series stars Peppard, Mr. T, Dwight Schultz and Dirk Benedict.

"The A-Team went well beyond being a hit television series. It was a phenomenon," says series creator Stephen J. Cannell. "There were never leading men like this on television before. At its core it had a very simple premise: four guys who are wrongly convicted of a crime decide to go out and help people who can't help themselves. The need to fight back against injustice is a great subject for a story and audiences responded to the show with fervor. Generations of kids grew up on the series and then generations past the ones who actually saw it for the first time growing up got a chance to see it in re-runs and got the same kick out of it."

Director Joe Carnahan had himself been a fan of the show growing up. He knew that the hit television show had a devoted following and recognised the challenges in bringing The A-Team to the big screen. "This was a coveted property and re-imagining a show that I remembered as a kid was tough to turn down," says Joe Carnahan. "We wanted to be respectful of the series for the generation of fans who grew up with it but we also wanted to take the A-Team into the twentieth century.

While everyone agreed that the base premise of the series was a terrific idea for a feature film, the project gestated for almost a decade with the script going through a number of iterations over the years as writers struggled to avoid the series' campy nature.

"We'd been trying to get the script right for a long time," recalls producer and former FOX executive Alex Young. "If you want a modern movie you have to make it feel bigger and more muscular and make the action sequences compete with all the best of what's out there now. Joe Carnahan has this very modern, very muscular sensibility and his approach to the material was grittier and more real-world."

When Joe Carnahan came on board, he and writing partner Brian Bloom threw out all previous versions and redrafted the action to take place during the impending troop withdrawal from the Middle East. They drew on camaraderie and humor at the heart of the series, but ramped up the action, drama, adventure and intensity. Says Joe Carnahan, "The goal was to make a compelling, inventive action movie, but to keep it as emotional, real and accessible as possible without cheesing it up. There's no point in doing this kind of action drama if you're not going to elevate it."

Both Joe Carnahan and Brian Bloom felt that the material needed an update to reflect contemporary times and appeal to modern audiences. "The intention was not to abandon the television show and the characters that everyone loved so much, but to evolve and contemporise the story," says Brian Bloom.

"People today are a lot more keen and savvy than they were 25 years ago when the show first aired," says Joe Carnahan. "If you tried to put the series out today you wouldn't get away with what they got away with then. At the time, the campy aspect of the show was hugely entertaining but today's audiences are a lot more sophisticated, so to bring it into this time and this place, tonally the material had to change."

"What Joe Carnahan and Brian Bloom managed to do," offers producer Iain Smith, "was to capture the essence of The A-Team, the power of them and the fun, and to translate that into a very modern idea. I think the film is hugely enjoyable as a result."

While opting to contemporise the material and elevate the drama, the filmmakers agreed that if the A-Team's transition to the big-screen were to be successful that the camaraderie that was at the heart and soul of the series would also have to be at the heart and soul of the film.

Comments Joe Carnahan, "For me, what I always loved about the show wasn't so much the situational stuff but the camaraderie and the affection that these guys had for one another. It wasn't the wild stories or plot twists that made the show a success, it was the fact that you believed that these four guys genuinely liked one another and really had one another's back."

"What you came to learn was that these guys desperately needed each other to continue, not only emotionally, but technically, tactically," emphasises Brian Bloom. "They were definitely a team."

"People just really, really loved these characters," says producer Jules Daly. "Sure they were charismatic and funny, but there was also a great sense of affection and connection between the four guys which the audiences really responded to and we all knew that the most critical thing in terms of the film working would be the chemistry between the four leads."

"There was a lot of debate about where to go with the casting," recalls Alex Young. "And it was tricky, because when we were getting into it we realised there were a lot of different ways to go, you could look at every male actor over a certain age and make a legitimate case. The one thing we knew was that we wanted the four of them to feel fresh, we didn't want to just cast the usual suspects and then surround them with a bunch of supporting actors."

When contemplating casting choices for the pivotal role of Col. John "Hannibal" Smith, the filmmakers felt it was important to find an actor who exuded power, confidence and authority, but at the same time, had a sense of humor. Hannibal leads the A-Team into every mission; a master tactician, he is always a step ahead of the enemy. He keeps his team out of trouble, but his unconventional methods rarely lead to a predictable conclusion. No matter the scheme, he loves it when a plan comes together.

Oscar-nominated actor Liam Neeson is best known for his dramatic turns portraying characters with great physical presence and humanity but it was his acclaimed action-hero performance in the global hit Taken that made the filmmakers realise that the role of Hannibal was a natural fit for the actor. Says Jules Daly, "Liam Neeson is one of the most exciting actors working today, but it was his performance in Taken that convinced us he was perfect for the role of Hannibal. He's sexy, fit, and strong and brings gravitas to the role. I think when Liam Neeson came on board we set the tone as to where the project was going."

"No matter what the role, Liam Neeson shows different facets of himself and the characters he plays and he does it with integrity, passion and honesty," says Joe Carnahan. "The role of Hannibal is vital to this story and Liam Neeson brings the right combination of intelligence and strength to the character. It's easy to believe that his men love, trust and respect him."

In describing what attracted him to the role of Hannibal Smith, Liam Neeson states: "When I first read the script I was really taken with the relationship between the four guys that Joe Carnahan and Brian Broom managed to keep at the heart of the script. Clearly a lot of thought had gone into it and it had a wonderful camaraderie between the guys. Hannibal is a believable hero. He's moral, has a strong sense of ethics and loves his country and his men."

Indeed, while Liam Neeson embraced the opportunity to play the master tactician, he struggled with fact that he would also have to embrace his character's trademark stogie. "As an ex-smoker, I felt conflicted about the cigar," admits the actor. "But I understood why the writers kept the conceit; it does add a contentment to Hannibal's character when a plan's going well and he pulls out a cigar and lights it. There's a feeling of oneness with the world when he lights that match that I totally empathise with and understand that there were certain scenes where we had to have them but we don't want kids to emulate what I'm doing, which is to take up smoking."

Lt. Templeton "Faceman" Peck is the A-Team's conman and go-to guy when it comes to getting what they need when they need it. He uses his good looks and charm to scam and hustle his way to the prize and to live the good life. Face can talk anyone - especially women - out of (or into) anything he wants.

To bring the role of Face to the screen, the filmmakers tapped Bradley Cooper, whose starring role in last year's hit comedy The Hangover cemented his reputation as one of the hottest talents of his generation.

"Aside from being enormously clever, seductive and handsome, the character of Face needed to be really likable and charming; qualities Bradley Cooper has in spades," asserts Jules Daly. "He's a tremendously appealing guy and looks the part physically, so you can believe him when he gets into action. It was just a really terrific fit."

"When Bradley Cooper expressed an interest in playing the role, I didn't see the point in looking any further," recalls Joe Carnahan. "You know when you hit it off with someone right away and you think, okay, this is probably going to be one of my lifelong friends. That was the vibe I got with Bradley Cooper immediately. A lot of actors talk a big game, but they don't deliver. Bradley Cooper gives it his all 100 percent of the time. He's a great guy with a great sense of humor and I think he brings a whole new dimension to the role."

It wasn't a difficult decision for Bradley Cooper to tackle the role. "It's always been a dream to do an action movie," recalls the actor. "I love sports and I love pretending to fight. And to take on such an iconic show, one that I grew up on, and to do so besides the likes of Liam Neeson, is just amazing."

Bradley Cooper particularly enjoyed that the role afforded him the opportunity to take on the more physical aspects needed for many of the action scenes and adopted a strict diet and rigorous training regime - which included doing 'The Grouse Grind" a grueling speed-hike up 2,800 feet of Vancouver's Grouse Mountain - to get into shape for the film.

"I keep pretty fit, but I had to up the ante for this" says Bradley Cooper. "Action scenes are tricky and take an enormous amount of energy. You have to pay close attention to so many things - your body position, how you move when you fight, how you move when you handle a gun . . . Face is a soldier; he doesn't mind getting a little rough so you have to be ready for the physical stuff."

"Howlin' Mad" Murdock is one of the best chopper pilots to emerge from Desert Storm. If it's got rotors, he can fly it. He has a genius I.Q. and knows everything about anything. He'll impersonate a surgeon or a prince with a moments notice - and you'll believe him. His record reports him as being officially mentally unstable, and sometimes he's scarily convincing at it. He doesn't run from trouble; instead, he'll plot a course directly for it.

Producer Jules Daly first took notice of Sharlto Copley when she saw an early cut of District 9. "I loved what he'd done with the Wikus character; he had a quirkiness to him that I thought would be perfect for the role of Murdock" recalls Jules Daly. The filmmakers asked Sharlto Copley, who was on a PR tour for District 9, to put a few scenes of how he thought Murdock would act on tape and to send it to them. The rest, as they say, is history.

The idea of playing one of his childhood heroes on the big screen appealed to Sharlto Copley. "The A-Team was my favorite show as a kid and Murdock was my favorite character," says Sharlto Copley. "So to play him, and to meet Dwight Schultz (who played the role on the TV series) was like a dream come true."

A master of improvisation, Sharlto Copley embraced the creative atmosphere on the set, developing comic bits and expanding his character beyond what was on the page. "What really excited me was the dangerous element to Murdock's character - the dangerousness combined with the humor," explains Sharlto Copley. "You never really know when he's acting crazy if he's really crazy of if he's just putting it on. Is he kidding? Or is he going to shoot you in the face? Because he's such a wacky character, you can have a lot of fun with his scenes. He's really unique and an amazing opportunity to play."

It was Sharlto Copley's idea to give his character a Southern Accent. "To hear Sharlto Copley speak, he has a definite South African accent, but there's not a shred of this in the movie," says Joe Carnahan. "He's doing this pan-handle Texan twang that is unidentifiable. He's a ridiculously talented guy. He shows up with ideas and puts his best foot forward at all times. He has an amazing ability to run with an idea and you just can't exhaust his imagination in terms of what he will give you. His whole attitude was that Murdock's nuts, so he had to be a bit nuts too. I think people are going to love what he's done with the role."

B.A. Baracus is an extraordinarily skilled driver and mechanic who can work on the fly to create highly functional machinery out of ordinary parts. He is also a skilled fighter who "brings it" when it comes to hand-to-hand combat. He has a short fuse so do not get him angry. He fears no one and nothing - except for getting on a plane.

The role of B.A. Baracus was the hardest to cast because, out of all the original TV characters, it carried the most iconic qualities. Comments Alex Young, "The first question everyone asked was 'who's playing Mr. T.' It was a signature role in the way that you don't have a lot of signature roles anymore and literally every young African American actor in Hollywood wanted the role."

The filmmakers agreed that what they were looking for was someone who was not afraid to make the role their own. It wasn't until they went through an extensive casting process that they realised that former UFC light heavyweight champion Quinton "Rampage" Jackson was the man for the role.

Recalls Joe Carnahan, "We brought Quinton "Rampage" Jackson to Vancouver to screen test him and he just nailed it. The scene he read was so unbelievably good. There's a moment in the movie where B.A. takes a vow and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson delivered it so perfectly that we were all just blown away."

Quinton "Rampage" Jackson allows that some of his fondest memories growing up are of watching the original series with his father. "I used to bond with my father watching The A-Team as a kid, it was cool; we used to try to build crazy stuff like they did right there in front of the TV," recalls Quinton "Rampage" Jackson. "So my take on B.A. is really actually me and my dad put together. Joe Carnahan told me to 'put my own stank' on it which is what I did. When I first got the part people used to come up to me and say 'Hey, I hear you're the new Mr. T' and I'd tell them, 'Dude, I'm not the new Mr. T, can't nobody be Mr. T but Mr. T, calling me Mr. T is like calling Mr. T Rampage.'

While Joe Carnahan and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson decided to keep the character's trademark Mohawk and his fear of flying, the gold chains are gone. "Quinton "Rampage" Jackson and I had a lot of conversations and we were both adamant that the character is B.A. Baracus, not Mr. T. And we both felt that the gold chains were always more an affectation of Mr. T., not the B.A. character. I can't imagine anybody who was a B.A. Baracus fan, and conversely, Mr. T. fan being disappointed by Quinton "Rampage" Jackson's portrayal of the character. He has beautifully acquitted himself."

From the very beginning, the chemistry and camaraderie between the four actors was strong both on and off the screen. Comments Jules Daly, "They guys clicked right away; they really compliment one another. They are, in every sense of the word, a team. And that, for us, was probably the most critical thing in terms of the film working. We knew that it the chemistry was right that this would be a wonderful movie."

"I think the actors are perfectly cast," states Cannell. "I don't know how we could have done any better. Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Sharlto Copley and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson have captured the essence of what people loved about the original characters, but at the same time, are making the roles completely their own."

Joining Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Sharlto Copley and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson in the cast are Jessica Biel and Patrick Wilson.

Jessica Biel stars as Charisa Sosa, a captain with the military's Defense Criminal Investigation Service unit. Extremely capable, independent and focused, Sosa - who shares a complicated dating history with Face - becomes his and the Team's number one problem when she becomes their chief pursuer.

"Charisa Sosa is a dynamic component in the story and we needed someone who could step up to the role," says Joe Carnahan, "Jessica Biel is sharp, astute, intuitive and notoriously funny, sexy and smart - all qualities that I felt the Charisa Sosa character had to have. I knew Jessica Biel wouldn't have any problem holding her own among these guys."

Jessica Biel says that she was immediately interested in playing the character. "Joe Carnahan was emphatic that Charisa Sosa wasn't going to be the testosterone-laden female element of the story, and she isn't," offers Jessica Biel. "It's sometimes hard to get the right balance of femininity and strength in a role like this, but Joe Carnahan and Brian Bloom did a wonderful job writing the character; she's cool and savvy and so skilled that she could probably be a member of the A-Team, but she's also extremely comfortable with who she is and as such, is not afraid to show her feminine side."

While being the sole woman in a cast of extremely strong male characters might be intimidating to some, Jessica Biel allows that the situation wasn't exactly a hardship. "It's a tough job, but someone's got to do it," laughs Jessica Biel. "All the guys have been really wonderful and fun to work with. I initially thought that it might be a bit of a boy's club on set, there's been an incredibly collaborative energy throughout."

Patrick Wilson stars as CIA operative Lynch, a key player in the Team's most explosive mission. "Little is know about Lynch," says Patrick Wilson of his character. "Is he a good guy? Is he trustworthy? Is he a villain? I typically play such solid earnest characters that it's been fun for me to play someone who's a bit of a mystery man. We just keep peeling away the layers and by the end you see what he's become."

Rounding out the cast are Gerald McRaney as Hannibal's friend and mentor, General Morrison; Brian Bloom as Pike, a shadowy private military contractor; and Maury Sterling and Terry Chen as DCIS agents Gammons and Ravech.

About the Production
With The A-Team Joe Carnahan's goal was to ensure that as the stakes rose, as the story moved along, that the stakes were upped by not only the story, but by high intensity action-sequences. "Were constantly throwing around ideas to come up with fresh and original ways to ramp up the action, the adventure and the intensity," says Joe Carnahan.

Adds Jules Daly, "We wanted to create unforgettable action-packed sequences that would stay with audiences long after they left the theatre and everyone from our wonderful director of photography Mauro Fiore and production designer Charlie Wood to our stunt coordinators Ben Bray and Frank Torres to our visual effects team led by Jamie Price was involved."

A stickler for realism, Joe Carnahan sought out the services of Paul Maurice, a military advisor with extensive wartime experience to train the cast in the use of the wide array of weapons used throughout the film and make them accurately look like a Special Forces unit in current time. "The actors were taught very advanced gun fighting, which is unusual for a movie, but Joe Carnahan very much wanted it to look real," explains Paul Maurice. "We took the cast from basic classroom weapon handling and safety to what we call Type 1, Type 2 and Type 3 malfunctions which are the primary reason why guns go down in a gunfight, which is rare for actors to do. We went through the basics and then started to get into advanced levels, step by step. The level of gun fighting taught was literally buddy/buddy training so they were able to pull guns, shoot very close-quarter and very long range battle and move efficiently as a team and fire right next to one another with absolute trust."

The actors were taught to handle and clear the guns and to get them running again as soon as possible, which, explains Paul Maurice, "is unusual for a film because the weapons coordinators and filming crew don't have to stop and cut, they can actually let the actors clear the guns and keep running. The cast took their training seriously and by the end became exceptionally proficient in shooting, running, clearing the weapons, doing mag changes and moving and fighting with a gun."

"Joe Carnahan really wanted us to know what we were doing so he could shoot the scene and not have to make quick cuts, he wanted it to look real and for the four of us to really function like a team," says Sharlto Copley. "And when you're being trained by a guy who's literally going off and coming back wounded from Afghanistan, it makes you think a little more about what you're doing and what would actually be involved; it brings it close to home, that you are portraying a glamorised version of what real guys are doing on a daily basis so we all felt it was important to respect that and be as accurate as possible."

"Paul Maurice really whipped these guys into shape, they went through some arduous training and he made them an absolute four man unit," comments Joe Carnahan. "He took them from basic through advanced gun fighting, with tactical considerations such as how to walk the walk and talk the talk. He trained them far beyond the simple loading and unloading; Bradley Cooper, for instance, did a magazine change of an M-4 machine gun in under four seconds while laying backwards on a kind of pick point off the side of a semi. It was unbelievable."

"I kind of became obsessed with the training we were doing," admits Bradley Cooper. "Face is a weapons specialist so he loves running his M-4 machine, but that I even know you say 'run a gun,' is just very exciting."

Principal photography on The A-Team began on September 14, 2009 in a desert-like region outside Cache Creek, British Columbia where opening sequences of the film were shot. Chosen for its topographical similarity to the Mexican desert, the location where the filming unit spent the first week working was made all the more realistic when high winds created blinding dust storms that sandblasted everyone and everything on the set.

The second week saw the company filming at a former Sanitarium in Kamloops which stood in as the location for the Mexico Army Meddac Hospital where the Team meets Murdock for the first time. This time is was a young black bear that, annoyed at being ousted from his home, kept the shooting crew on their toes as he patrolled the perimeter. The company then moved back to Vancouver, which provided the backdrop for many of the film's scenes as well as the soundstages where a number of the larger sets were constructed.

Over the course of the four-month shoot, production designer Charles Wood and his team designed, constructed and dressed over 120 different sets and locations to transform Vancouver and its environs into, at varying times, the Middle East (Baghdad and Kabul), Europe (Frankfurt, Munich, Mannheim, Zurich, Oslo, the North Sea, the mid-Atlantic), and the Americas (Sonora, Los Angeles, Washington, Pensicola, Lake Tahoe, Boulder). "Joe Carnahan wanted a global feel for the action and, somewhat to our amazement, we were able to find locations that would cover the diversity of Baghdad, Mexico, Germany, all within a few hours of the center of Vancouver," says Charles Wood.

One of the film's pivotal sets, a Forward Operating Base outside of Baghdad, was constructed on a large, isolated, sandy building site an hour outside of Vancouver. The filmmakers chosen the area for its flat, wide expanses and clear skyline, which, with weeks of construction, painstaking attention to military set dressing, and the addition of a few palm trees, was eventually transformed into a working film set and what the crew jokingly referred to as "Baghdanada."

The new Vancouver Convention Center was transformed into the Frankfurt Central Train Station. "The Convention Center had a modernism to it that was similar to buildings we had seen in Germany. It had a great cat and mouse geography to it - lots of mid-ground and opportunities for people to appear from different areas in the set - which was applicable to the scene," explains Charles Wood. "Joe Carnahan and Mauro Fiore [director of photography Mauro Fiore] are not static filmmakers, they really like to keep the camera moving so you have to be very conscious of that when choosing or designing an environment."

Around the corner from the Convention Center, a second unit crew spent days outside the Bentall Building and Park Place on Burrard Street in downtown Vancouver filming high-octane stunt sequences including one which had Brian Bloom's character, Pike, dangling on a line on the side of a building and dropping 80 feet for a scene. Explains Brian Bloom, "Pike is involved in a gunfight with B.A. from two buildings across the way from each other and B.A.'s working his way down the building in a window-washing rig so Pike has no choice but to follow him down. And I was lucky enough-or crazy enough - to get the opportunity to get rigged up and go down the building myself which was awesome."

Brian Bloom wasn't the only member of the cast to embrace the physical aspects of the film. Bradley Cooper took advantage of the fact that he was in top physical shape to convince the filmmakers and stunt coordinators to let him in on the action in a number of scenes, including a hair-raising episode where he is hanging under a semi as the truck is driving down the road. "Working on this film with actors who are really involved and with a director that's very hands on, very supportive of the action, has been a stunt coordinators dream," comments co-stunt coordinator Ben Bray.

A number of different sets were used to create the setting for the climactic third act, which in the story plays out on the Long Beach Docks. A logistically difficult sequence to film as it involved the explosion of a large container ship; it was eventually decided to film the sequence in two different locations over a period of several weeks. At the beginning of December, and after much negotiation, the production was granted access to film at the Vancouver Docks where main unit filmed for two days before returning to the soundstage where Charles Wood and his crew had constructed a set replicating the aftermath of the explosion. Spectacular in both scope and design, 'Container World' was a massive engineering feat with 30 shipping containers stacked and cantilevered in such a way as to safely allow the explosive action and cat and mouse choreography of the scene to be played out over the final two weeks filming. Here especially, integration between the shooting crew, the art department, the visual and special effects teams, and stunt coordinators was critical as while main unit was working with the cast on the Container World stage set, a second unit crew was spending their nights at the docks filming the scripted mayhem that was integral to the action of the scene.

While filming in Vancouver, the production made use of a number of landmark locations including the architecturally stunning BCIT Aerospace Campus, which doubled for the U.S. Embassy in Frankfurt where Sosa is forced to hand the villainous Pike over to Lynch and his men, and the Wosk Center for Dialogue which provided the backdrop for the court scene where the military tribunal convenes to try the A-Team. Other notable locations included the Kent Correctional Institution, a Maximum Security Prison which allowed the filmmakers to bring verisimilitude to the scene where Lynch goes to meet with an incarcerated Hannibal; and a waterside location off the famed Sea-to-Sky Highway which winds through the mountains and connects Vancouver to Whistler and was the breathtaking backdrop for the Safe House where Hannibal and his men map out their plan after escaping from prison.