Irish director's 'A-Team' set to be summer blockbuster

Initially Carnahan didn’t realize the scale or level of interest in the A-Team until the project was announced and fans began to comment. Then he realized he was dealing with a genuinely beloved series, one that came with an ardent and critical international fan base.

“It’s funny, my fiancée grew up in the U.K. where The A-Team was quite a phenomenon. She was a huge fan of the show growing up,” says Carnahan.

“In fact she got caught writing sordid things about Face, the character played by Dirk Benedict, in her private diary when she was 13. Her mother confiscated it and wrote  ‘disgusting’ on every page.”

That kind of confession tipped Carnahan off to a simple fact. While he was obsessing over Miami Vice, millions of his peers found The A-Team far more fun and more life affirming.

“Even the most hardcore fans will tell you one thing. They remember the gadgets and the dress up really well,” says Carnahan.
“But no one remembers particular episodes really well. They remember all the camaraderie that those guys had together, the fun they had together, and that was the important part.”

Although his ancestors came to the U.S. in the 1800s, Carnahan has kept in touch with his own Irish background and has plans to visit Ireland this summer to learn as much as he can about his family background.

“My folks hail from Donegal. I don’t know many generations back, and from there they immigrated and ended up in Pennsylvania and Florida of all places,” he says.

“I am getting married to a Scottish Persian girl in July and I plan to visit Donegal later this summer. I’ll take the boat over from Scotland and I’m taking my dad with me. I know that it would be one of his great regrets if he didn’t see it. I’m really looking forward to us all going.”

To whet his appetite, Carnahan’s friend, the actor Jason Patric, who’s also of Irish descent, told him that the only authentic pint of Guinness is served in Ireland.

“I’ve been tortured by him. So around the fifth or sixth of July I’ll finally be traipsing around Ireland. I’m pretty excited about it,” Carnahan says.

Carnahan grew up in Michigan and then moved with his family to northern California when he was 13. Eventually he migrated to what he calls “the great salt lick” of Los Angeles in the late 1990s, where he began his directing career.

In the beginning as the production of The A-Team gained momentum and the script was fine-tuned, the filmmakers turned their attention to casting the team.

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Nster.com