The first reaction of anyone coming out of The Grey probably won’t be, “I bet the director of The A-Team, Smokin’ Aces, and that BMW short Ticker made this!” Joe Carnahan prefers it to be that way. The director’s fifth feature film isn’t a full-blown action romp, but is instead a thrilling meditation on life, death, and survival. (Check out our review here.) Similar to Carnahan’s breakout feature, Narc, The Grey shows all the trappings of a true personal project — the kind of story that a filmmaker had to tell. And, after speaking with Carnahan for 25 minutes, that was clearly the case. From White Jazz to Killing Pablo, when the personable man finds a story that comes from his core, he’s got to get it made. Here’s what Joe Carnahan had to say about the life and death themes of The Grey, writing and portraying real men, and why he never wants to become a “one for them, one for me” filmmaker:

Internationally loved cologne salesman, Charles Bronson, was already a massive star by the time he made Death Wish, but it’s his role as Paul Kersey that might be his most famous simply because he owns it completely. Sure he’s rugged and charismatic in The Dirty Dozen, he’s surprisingly vulnerable in The Great Escape, but in the Death Wish movies he’s in command and the streets bow down to him. So maybe a remake is in order? According to the LA Times, that’s the thinking of MGM and Paramount, and the partnership wants Joe Carnahan to clean up from fighting wolves for The Grey and come help them out with it. It must be tough coming out of bankruptcy, but MGM really has nothing except remake concepts going for them. That’s pretty damned sad. Of course, the big question with a remake like this (beyond the fact that remakes aren’t doing good business currently) is how to re-create something that tapped into a social feeling in the 1970s. The same heat just isn’t there, there is no grand panic in society of rising crime rates and a feeling of helplessness in the face of a bewildered law enforcement culture. In fact, police are so good at doing their jobs now, they even find time to pepper spray people in the face at random. So who becomes the villain here? And even better, who could possibly replace Charles Bronson as Paul Kersey? Jason Statham did the job recently for The Mechanic, but [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

Getting lost in the freezing cold wilderness with little to no hope of survival is frightening enough, but when the threat of a killer pack of wolves start descending on a group of blue collar workers who just survived a plane crash, the stakes are set even higher. Composer Marc Streitenfeld creates a sonic landscape that is both moving and terrifying, perfectly mirroring the snowy landscape that surrounds these men as they try to survive the elements. The heavy use of strings and piano are faint enough to keep from overpowering the already intense scenes and performances that make up The Grey, but are still powerful enough to support those moments and help add to the emotional weight of each actor’s striking performances. The Grey also makes an interesting choice in choosing not to turn up the volume or throw in a ton more instrumentation, even when those on screen are running and fighting for their lives. Streitenfeld instead scales back to allow those more natural sounds (and the sound of those ferocious wolves) to take over.

This week, Fat Guy Kevin Carr tapes some alcohol bottles to his knuckles and gets ready to brawl with wolves. Unfortunately, he first drinks all the booze in the bottles and ends up passing out in the snow. When he wakes up, he brushes himself off and heads downtown to climb on the ledge of a tall building. The police are called to try and save him, but Kevin ends up jumping when he learns that Katherine Heigl is brought in to talk him down. Fortunately, Kevin survives the fall and stumbles to the local multiplex to check out this week’s new movies.

The man vs nature genre of action/adventure films is usually a pretty reliable one when it comes to attractive scenery and entertaining scraps between man and beast. From the popcorn perfection of Jaws to the bloody thrills of Savage Harvest there’s a visceral thrill to be found in battles fought fist against claw (or teeth, beak, trunk, etc). With the exception of the very best however the films are usually pure entertainment that stop well short of anything resembling engaging human drama. The Grey is one of those exceptions. Mostly.

With the gut-wrencher Shame, an uncomfortably funny Young Adult, Spielberg’s heart-string pullin’ War Horse, a high-flying Tintin adventure, the shining return of Cameron Crowe, the oversized popcorn blockbuster Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, the overlooked hilarity of Carnage, the pulpy thrills of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and the subdued near-masterpiece that is Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, last month was a pretty fantastic time at the movies. Now we’re entering January. While this time of the year is usually a dumping ground — and we’ll be getting plenty of films of that low-caliber — there’s a surprising amount of films to check out this month, mainly the award-ready expanding releases.

One of the few, if only, highlights of seeing Breaking Dawn last night was seeing some new trailers, including a brand new one for The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, a much leaner and brisker peak at the film. The teaser for The Grey, which hit the net back in September, was shown as well. It played well and managed to get an audience full of girls excited, despite the film being a total sausage fest set in the middle-of-nowhere. Now a day later another trailer has been released, and it’s much longer and spoiler-y than the previous footage we got. This plays out more as a sizzle reel than an actual finely-tuned trailer, but the first half is attention-grabbing. The set-up is sold tremendously well. Unfortunately, the second half of the trailer is a little long-winded. Still, Joe Carnahan‘s film looks like a fun, brutal, and atmospheric man vs. nature survival tale. Carnahan certainly a knack for hilarious brutality, as shown in the extremely fun Smokin’ Aces and The A-Team, but this seems more dramatically and tonally related to Narc.

If there’s one shot that’ll get your juices flowing for Joe Carnahan‘s upcoming survival epic, it’ll be one that features Liam Neeson sporting broken glass – why aren’t they plastic? – knuckles to face off against a hungry wolf. From the looks of it, that seems to be the plot of The Grey. Most of this slick teaser features CG wolves looking like angry CG wolves, with the scared and pissed humans looking like scared and pissed humans. Will the film be just two hours of that? I hope so. Director Joe Carnahan is certainly never someone to shy away from going a little nutso. Even in a tent-pole film like The A-Team, the man had a set-piece involving Bradley Cooper and a flying tank. Would Christoper Nolan ever have the gusto to do such a thing? I think not. Take a look at a gruff and cold Liam Neeson in the teaser for The Grey after the break.

Why Watch? Because Goodfellas can never be praised enough. Over twenty years later, Scorsese’s film about wiseguys has proven itself to be a modern classic, and this cool, breezy documentary allows directors like Jon Favreau, The Hughes Brothers, Joe Carnahan, Richard Linklater, Antoine Fuqua and Frank Darabont geek out about a movie they love. So what could be better than watching directors break down a fantastic film’s best elements while sharing the effect it had on them? What does it cost? Just 13 minutes of your time. Check out Made Men: The GoodFellas Legacy for yourself:

We’ll never get to know what Bradley Cooper would have been like in The Grey, but with Liam Neeson replacing him, Joe Carnahan’s next film becomes exponentially more interesting. Neeson is a far more compelling figure to watch on screen, especially in an action context. Part of that has to with age, and part of it has to do with ability. Fortunately, he’s down to take on some territorial wolves who don’t appreciate humans stealing all their precious oil. That’s why they hung up that mutilated, mustachioed man who came to them talking about milkshakes as a warning to anyone else who might try it.

What is The A-Team? It’s a big budget revamp of an eighties TV show! It’s a typical summer action movie with more boom than brains! It’s a rare example of Hollywood showing the US military in a positive light in an effort to finally make Aleric happy!

The A-Team seems like an odd change of pace for Joe Carnahan. One, it’s a summer tent-pole popcorn movie that’s an inevitable blockbuster. Two, Carnahan is one known for his grit and his more extreme nature when it comes to the violent side of things. And three, it’s got wide appeal — unlike (the underrated) Smokin’ Aces or Narc. We pulled in an interview with Carnahan — who’s an actual Film School Reject himself — at the last second to discuss all of this.

This week, Fat Guy Kevin Carr hops in a time machine to 1984 to grade The A-Team and The Karate Kid.

Kevin and Neil hop in a time machine and travel back to 1984 to relive the glory days of The A-Team and The Karate Kid. Then they lay down a Fat Guy Five about 80s TV shows that should get their own movie before learning the true meaning of Mr. Belvedere.

If you haven’t met The A-Team, you’re probably in the lost generation. Those born in the chasm between the run of the 1983 television series and right now. Don’t worry though, we’ve got some helpful videos for you.

Rob Hunter takes a look at the new trailer for A-Team and focuses a bit too much on Jessica Biel.

Bradley Cooper (The Hangover) just wrapped work with Smokin’ Aces director Joe Carnahan on The A-Team, which hits theaters this summer. But he’s not done working with Carnahan yet. With their next project, Cooper will be shedding the cool badassery of Lt. Templeton ‘Faceman’ Peck and taking on wolves. Yes, wolves.

20th Century Fox has released a new gallery of photographs this week from their upcoming action film The A-Team, which was curiously absent from our list of 2010′s most anticipated films.

Sure, the title of the direct-to-DVD follow-up to Joe Carnahan’s wicked violent Smokin’ Aces isn’t Electric Bugaloo, but I happen to like it better than Smokin’ Aces 2: Assassin’s Ball.

On the other side of the world in Rumorland, the reality is that District 9 star Sharlto Copley has been offered the role of Murdock for The A-Team. Here in our reality, we have no clue whether this is true or not.