Director Joe Carnahan says his movie of The A-Teamwill dispense with the campy nature of the original TV series for a tone closer to the Mission: Impossibleand Ocean's Elevenmovies.

Having demonstrated his flair for the action genre in the highly profitable recent Taken, Liam Neeson has been offered the leading role of Col John "Hannibal" Smith, played by George Peppard in the TV series which ran from 1983-87.