Chris Pine will be following in the footsteps of Val Kilmer, Vincent Price, and the late great Roger Moore as the latest actor to play Simon Templar in Paramount Pictures’ new reboot of The Saint. Directed by Rocketman‘s Dexter Fletcher, The Saint is a potential beginning of a new film franchise for Paramount.
The Saint, based on works by British fiction writer Leslie Charteris, was a British spy thriller TV series that ran from 1962 to 1969. Before he was James Bond, Roger Moore starred as Simon Templar, a vigilante agent working outside the law to help people in need. Before it made the small screen, The Saint was adapted as a radio drama starring Vincent Price as Templar in the 1940s.
In the past, revivals of The Saint have been less than successful. 1978’s Return of the Saint, starring Ian Oglivy, only ran for one season. The 1997 film starring Val Kilmer saw some success, but failed to launch a franchise for Paramount, nor was it really that faithful to the 1960s TV series or Charteris’s original works. Canada-based Brightlight Pictures tried to revive the series in 2009, but the project never came to fruition. And just three short years ago, 20th Century Fox put out a TV movie starring Adam Raynar, intended to be the pilot for a new series. This also fell through.
Now that The Saint is back in Paramount’s hands, with Pine as the figurehead, it will be interesting to see what the studio does with the franchise this time.
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