Carnahan's Crack Commandos - Joe Carnahan on The A-Team

Jordan Hoffman: One question I have for you is how many times do the words “plan” or “fool” get said in this film?

Joe Carnahan: I don’t know, I think we lose count at some point.  In my other movies you lose count of the F word, same thing in this. “Plan, plan, plan” yeah. What we want to do is to drive home the point that Hannibal is a bit of a fastidious planner so, it’s nice that there’s a little passing of the torch between him and Face in the film, I quite like it.

Jordan Hoffman: Absolutely. I think the best bit of fan service, if you want to call it that, was when they’re watching the film within the film and you’re seeing the credits roll.  Then you read the names of the actors in the film and it says “Reginald Barclay.” Was that your doing?  [Deep cut translation: Reginald Barclay was a character on Star Trek: TNG that was played by Dwight Schultz, who played Murdock on the A-Team TV show.]

Joe Carnahan:  That was our doing, that was our kind of conspiring and saying let’s just go for the geek moment since we’re gonna play the original theme song and make it look like an old episode with the old font style, and I thought it would be kind of a funny thing to have the characters they played in other shows.

Jordan Hoffman: Wait, so it was the other characters in other shows also!

Joe Carnahan:  Oh yeah, there’s Lt. Starbuck [original Face Dirk Benedict played Starbuck on the original BSG], oh yeah, if you watched there was there was Clubber Lang [Mr. T.'s role from Rocky III] on there.

Jordan Hoffman: What!?!?  I didn't see it!  I was so blown away by Reginald Barclay that I didn’t even see the others!

Joe Carnahan:  You look in the background you can see Starbuck. I think you can see Clubber Lang. I’m not sure.  And a name for George Peppard [original Hannibal], too, it was, um . . .I forget now

Jordan Hoffman: I'm guessing not his part in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, that’s not your style.

Joe Carnahan:  No, he was on some television – what the heck was the TV show he was on?

Jordan Hoffman:  Well, either way, that’s a lot of fun, you've elevated the bar for Easter eggs.