It looks like Dexter Fletcher has found The Saint as Chris Pine is in talks to star in the reboot Paramount Pictures property.
JoBlo is reporting on the news that will have the Wonder Woman star as Simon Templar after it was revealed a couple of months back the Rocketman director is set to helm the film.
It makes some sense for Paramount to turn to Pine as he was Captain Kirk in the recent rebooted Star Trek movie and is a big enough name to help get some people interested.
However, I don’t think he’s the right choice to be The Saint, as someone who loves the 1960s Roger Moore series, the former James Bond made the role his own, and it’s clear even back then why Chubby Broccoli wanted Moore as 007.
The beauty of the series is that while Templar is a Robin Hood figure, Moore kept a lot of himself in it with his tongue in cheek.
Which is why I think a British actor should’ve been looked at to continue that sort of humour and personally felt Sam Claflin would’ve been a great choice.
At 33, he’s a great age and would’ve just younger than Moore when he started the series, and it could be the start of a small/mid-budget franchise or moved him to bigger things.
He also has the charming personality and tongue-in-cheek humour that would’ve been ideal.
This is not me saying Pine is a bad actor, far from it, I think he’s excellent. I loved him in Wonder Woman and was the third reason for its success (behind Patty Jenkins and Gal Gadot) and get as Captain Kirk.
If anything he’s perfectly suited to another Roger Moore led series from the 70s called The Persuaders as the Tony Curtis character Danny Wilde.
Despite my hopes, my main worry about this remake was that the studio was also going to go for a Yank, especially since Seth Grahame-Smith wrote the recent script draft.
Nothing to take away from Smith, it’s just the last times the I.P has been in American hands we’ve gotten the 1997 Val Kilmer movie and the 2017 TV movie with Eliza Dushku that fell on its arse.
The one thing they need to keep is that they keep the original theme, it’s perfect. The only way they can improve is if they add an orchestra to push it up.
It doesn’t need anything updated, just keep it simple.
The biggest worry is what the studio is going to spend on it because there is no reason for this project to hit anywhere near $100 million. If it did/does producers are asking to be fired as it’ll bomb as hard the Kilmer flick.
If you add production costs and marketing, the film could and should be budgeted for under $70 million.
In case you have no idea what I’ve been talking about The Saint are a bunch of books written by Leslie Charteris in the 1920s.
It centred on Simon Templar, a Robin Hood-esque, a smooth, sophisticated, globe-trotting British thief who uses his skills to take on corrupt politicians, the wealthy/elite and other powerful forces. His endeavours typically involved leaving his iconic calling card, a mockingly-posed stick figure crowned with a hovering halo.
The Bear Cave 