Liam Neeson is in talks to star as Col. John "Hannibal" Smith in 20th Century Fox's long-gestating bigscreen adaptation The A-Team. Bradley Cooper is in early talks to play Lt. Templeton "Faceman" Peck.

According to Variety, the Joe Carnahan-directed film is based on the 1980s TV series and will go into production in late August for a June 11, 2010, release.

Ridley Scott is producing with Jules Daly and series creator Stephen J. Cannell, with Tony Scott exec producing through Scott Free. Carnahan and Brian Bloom polished a script by Skip Woods, whose recent script credits include G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra and X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Neeson is in talks to play Hannibal, the role originated by George Peppard, while Cooper would play "Faceman," the role played by Dirk Benedict.

Carnahan, Fox and Scott Free have kept the series premise -- four war vets wrongly convicted of armed robbery escape from a military prison to become do-gooder mercenaries -- but they've replaced the campy nature of the series with a tone closer to those of Mission: Impossible and Ocean's Eleven.

Still to be cast are the roles of Capt. "Howling Mad" Murdock, played by Dwight Schultz in the original, and Sgt. "B.A." Baracus, the role that made Mr. T an '80s icon.