The news that Bruce Willis has been approached to star as Hannibal Smith in the feature version of The A - Team isn’t really a surprise.. He is one of the original names that has been attached to the part for almost a decade but … it’s a pretty good choice! Looks like we got one of our dream Team members right again..

John Singleton is attached to direct, and the 2 Fast 2 Furious helmer has already mentioned that he would like Woody Harrelson to play Murdock and Ice Cube to play the iconic B.A Barracus.. We must point out though, that nobody has in fact been signed..

The main question is: Would Willis be willing to star in such an obviously commercial choice, and one that is based on a 1980’s television show?

There’s a pretty good chance that he might want to step into George Peppard’s shoes..

Willis has shown a great interest in pop culture over the years, and he has appeared in comic book adaptations - Sin City and the forthcoming The Surrogates ( A pretty cool graphic novel - you should pick it up ) sequels - Die Hard I’m looking at you!

Heck he’s even willing to star in ensemble films - Pulp Fiction and Ocean’s Twelve, and let’s not forget that he started his career on television during the 1980’s with Moonlighting..

It will be interesting to see if Willis would be up for it, but he’s more likely to do it than the other names on the Hannibal list: Mel Gibson, George Clooney and Harrison Ford..

If Singleton gets the cast he wants it should make for an interesting film - that is if they don’t play it too straight, this should be an 80’s style action flick - with humor!

With cast possibilities like these, the biggest hurdle this film will likely have to overcome is budget concerns.. Over - the - top moments, most often including massive explosions, were a signature characteristic of the original TV series.. For example, a huge bomb’s detonator is timed exactly to the lighting of Hannibal’s cigar in one episode, enabling the crucial bad - ass - walking - towards - the - camera - with - a - smile - while - the - world - explodes - behind - him shot.. Additionally, virtually every episode in the series features vehicles, particularly of the military jeep variety, that are prone to explosion when met with gunfire..

The A - Team’s violence, however, always came highly sanitized.. Nobody actually dies on the show, despite the fact that their vehicle / tank / helicopter has just exploded into a jillion pieces around them.. That’s not to mention the fact that about 50 million rounds of ammunition are fired in each episode, striking absolutely nothing that breathes - ever.. Sure, people may clutch their chests or supposedly afflicted limbs, but did you see any blood? Hell no..

The lack of blood, corpses or even so much as a bruise was a running joke among the writing staff, according to show creator Stephen J. Cannell.. Writers would often deliberately test the limits of realism just to see how ridiculously improbable they could make the situation.. Soldiers trapped in a nuclear ammo dump that’s just been blown to high hell climb out of the smoldering rubble looking little more than winded.. Hannibal fires a bazooka at a military vehicle, reducing it to a mangled mess of burning steel, yet the vehicle’s occupants crawl from the wreckage without a scratch.. See the pattern?

This film could be great, with the right script and especially the right cast.. But Singleton has his work cut out for him, because the odds of this movie bombing are pretty high.. No word on a release date, or a start date for that matter, but you can bet your backside I’ll keep you up - to - date..

I’m just waiting to use the line - ” I love it when a cast comes together!”

Discuss: What is you Dream Team?