The Saint's Blog devoted to news and rumors about The Saint and Leslie Charteris. Simon Templar, alias The Saint, was played by Roger Moore in the 1960's TV show featuring the Volvo 1800.
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Sunday, October 22, 2017
Saint Bookmarks Archive
In January 2003, I started saving web bookmarks related to the Saint and Leslie Charteris using the latest cool Web 2.0 technology site del.icio.us! I saved over 500 bookmarks, and the best part was that I could show them by tag subject on the relevant pages here on Saint.org -- for example, links tagged with roger.moore would all automatically show up on this site's Roger Moore page.
Well, it's now 2017, and del.icio.us has been bought and sold five times, most recently to Pinboard -- who is shutting it down. Pinboard is thankfully allowing it to stay up for the near future in read-only mode, but the feeds and api no longer work. I used the export function to pull all my bookmarks out into one file.
Many years ago, I was kindly invited to visit the set of a pilot episode of a new TV show about The Saint. The filming was done with three camera crews, and with the highest production values. I met all the people involved on screen and off, and I was impressed. This was going to be great!
That was in January 2013, and nothing came of it. I kept waiting and waiting. From what I saw, this was absolutely the right way to portray the famous Simon Templar, and I was horribly disappointed that nobody was going to see it.
Well, it is now July 2017 and the pilot episode has been greatly expanded with all-new footage, and it's out. It's available. You can watch it today!
The Saint is Back!
It's available to rent or buy on video-on-demand via:
Simon Templar (Adam Rayner) is The Saint, a modern-day Robin Hood who recovers ill-gotten wealth and redistributes it to those in need with the help of his beautiful partner (Eliza Dushku). But the stakes are higher than ever in Simon’s latest caper, involving $2.5 billion in African aid funds, a persistent FBI agent, and an innocent girl held hostage by the man who stole the money first.
Starring Adam Rayner, Eliza Dushku, Greg Grunberg, Roger Moore, Ian Ogilvy, James Remar, Enrique Murciano, Yani Gellman, Beatrice Rosen, and Thomas Kretschmann.
92 Minutes from 20th Century Fox Watch The Trailer
The most likely producers seem to be a high-powered collection of Hollywood talent, including Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Brad Krevoy and Robert Evans.
The first Paramount film, starring The Saint was a good action romance that stood on its own. The issue for fans of The Saint was that the real Saint that we all know and love, didn't show up until the last few minutes. Such is the problem with origin films, and why franchises like Star Wars started with Episode IV.
Now that The Saint's origin is out of the way, the hopes are that this will be another great franchise with Simon Templar being The Saint from the very first second!
Simon Templar will be back in force, and at just the time when we most need a Saint.
Ian Dickerson of www.lesliecharteris.com reports that for reasons beyond control the UK release of the book reprints has been a little delayed. Here is the revised schedule from Mulholland, which includes information on the new introductions for each title.
After many, many years, a very large publishing of The Saint series has been started up by Mulholland in the U.K, an imprint of long-time Charteris publisher, Hodder & Stoughton. This is a really big deal, as a large publishing run of The Saint hasn't happened since the 1980s.
Mulholland will be publishing 35 of the Saint books by Leslie Charteris over the course of a year. As a Hodder imprint, Mulholland will start with the second book in the series, The Saint Closes The Case. They will skip the first title, The Saint Meets The Tiger, as that is a book in which Hodder has never had the publishing rights. The printing series will end with The Saint in the Sun, which is really the last of the true Charteris-only stories. These 35 encompass the classic Saint Saga, in the truest sense, and skip the last few titles that were co-authored with help from people besides Leslie Charteris himself. Of course, the last few are also the hardest ones to find, as they have been published much less than the heart of the collection. Let's hope that they sell enough of these to publish the remaining titles for a really complete run of the Saint in full!
Publishing started earlier this year, and plans to date are to be finished in February of 2014. The titles are being published in both print and ebook formats with new introductions and extra content for each edition. The Publishing Schedule looks like this:
Deadline Hollywood has posted the exclusive first footage of Adam Rayner as Simon Templar, alias The Saint!
Adam Rayner and Eliza Dushku look absolutely fantastic in the trailer promo for the new TV series that is based on Leslie Charteris’ Saint franchise.
The backdoor pilot was directed by Simon West from a script by Jesse Alexander. Brad Krevoy’s film and TV production company MPCA is behind the project, which will be screened at MIPTV next week, with MPCA’s Francisco Gonzalez handling international sales.
Deadline reports that there is interest in the series from U.S. networks.
Now watch the trailer here, and see if you can spot all the amazing co-stars such as James Remar, Enrique Murciano, Thomas Kretschmann, Greg Grunberg, Sir Roger Moore, and Ian Ogilvy!
The news that Roger Moore is not only co-producing the new 2013 incarnation of The Saint, but that he will also be playing a role on-screen made headlines this week. Many fans are extremely pleased to hear that the most famous Simon Templar of all, Roger Moore himself, will be guiding Adam Rayner's character both on and off the show!
Roger Moore as The Saint with Volvo 1800S
The known cast and crew list is growing as details emerge from the first week of shooting. The filming went really great this week, and the show is now taking a short break for the holidays, and will resume the shoot in San Diego just after the New Year.
If you take a close look at the list, you'll notice Thomas Kretschmann is slated to play the role of Rayt Marius. This name should be quite familiar to fans of Leslie Charteris' books, as Rayt Marius appears in the 1930 novel, The Last Hero, and again in the following book, Knight Templar. He's also mentioned in 1932's, Getaway, and his final appearance in print was in The Misfortunes of Mr. Teal, in the novella, "The Simon Templar Foundation", 1934. This is really great news, as it means that the Producers are doing their homework and reading the books, something that is sure to pay off in making this new show more Saintly!
Brad Krevoy, Executive Producer, MPCA Production Company
Roman Viaris, Executive Producer
James Townsend, Executive Producer
Roger Moore, co-Producer
Geoffrey Moore, co-Producer
Lulu Moore, co-Producer
Louisa Macdonald, co-Producer
Jim Martin, co-Producer
Alexandre Coscas, co-Producer
1st Assistant Director, Nick Satriano
2nd Assistant Director, Jayson Merrill
2nd Assistant Director, Doug Plasse
Eric Jarboe, Producer
Lina Wong, Producer
Kyle Clark, Producer
Paul Sommers, Director of Photography
Kurt Jones, A Camera
Eric Leach, B Camera
Sound Mixer, Glenn Berkovitz
Uly Domaion, Focus Puller
Jason Salonen, Gaffer
Jack L. Zeman, Still Photographer
Josh Hakian, Special Effects Coordinator
Ian Dickerson, Creative Consultant
Bill MacDonald, Creative Consultant
Josh Hakian, Stunts and Special Effects
Fred Fuchs, Production
Emanuel Millar, Make-up and Hair
Mick Davis, Writer
Larry Zanoff, Armourer
Mandy Sherman, Casting Director, Sherman/Knight
Sari Knight, Casting Director, Sherman/Knight
Morgan Redfield Smith, Casting Assistant
Michael MacDermott, Product Placement
Francisco J. González, International Sales
Silverscreen Pictures
And, while Burl Barer is not part of the cast and crew, he is continuing the novelizations of The Saint under license of the Leslie Charteris estate, and it is hoped that he will be involved if any TV Tie-in editions become available.
The 2013 version of The Saint kicked off principal shooting this week, starting off in Pacific Palisades, California on Monday morning. This photo is from day one, and is the first one we have of Adam Rayner as Simon Templar, alias The Saint, standing next to Eliza Dushku, who is playing The Saint's partner-in-crime, Patricia Holm.
Eliza Dushku and Adam Rayner on the set of The Saint, day 1
Ian Ogilvy Joins Adam Rayner on The Saint
One of the really great things about this show is that the Producers are including a great deal of the history of The Saint. And to that end, on day two of the shoot, Ian Ogilvy, of 1970s TV show, The Return of The Saint, showed up on set for his role in the new show. Ian reportedly had a great time on set, and there is a possibility that his "wink cameo" (as he calls it) will turn into a semi-regular part.
Two Saints: Adam Rayner meets Ian Ogilvy on Day 2
And The Cast Grows
As filming gets underway this week, other cast members are being announced or otherwise making their connection to The Saint known! Here's is the lastest list we have so far, and more is obviously on the way!
Oliver Bell as the young Simon Templar
We'd love to know a lot more about Oliver Bell, and it appears he's only been in The Sparticle Mystery thus far. Perhaps The Saint will take him up up and away.
Oliver is represented by Caz Irwin and LSI Talent Management, who tweeted that their fab client Oliver Bell will be playing the young Simon Templar in The Saint alongside Sir Roger Moore!
Enrique Murciano as Inspector John Henry Fernack
The role of The Saint's American foil, Inspector John Henry Fernack, is an important one and well documented in the writings of Leslie Charteris. The character was based on an Italian-born detective of the New York Police Department that Charteris met in the 1930s. Enrique Murciano is reportedly brilliant in the role, and has a long career going all the way back to Speed 2, Traffic, Black Hawk Down, and a number of TV show appearances.
The photo of the left was taken on day 1 as filming of his on-going pursuit of Simon Templar continued in this 2013 version of The Saint.
Greg Grunberg as Detective Garces
Formally of the TV shows, Heroes, Felicity, and Alias, Greg will be playing Inspector Fernack's right hand man in their attempts to catch Adam Rayner and Eliza Dushku.
Most recently Grunberg has been a guest star of Hawaii Five-O, Psych, and Baby Daddy.
We are excited to see all the great talent that is being cast, and look forward to the show!
Yani Gellman as Doyle
Yani hit our radar on Day 3, when one of the co-Producers posted an Instagram of the mysterious "Doyle on The Set". It turned out to be Yani Gellman, who is reportedly playing a really great role in the pilot.
Gellman first appeared in Goosebumps back in 1998, and has since been in nine movies and 16 television shows, including 90210, The Mentalist, and Beauty and the Beast.
Follow The Saint @ #TheSaint
Tweet #TheSaint The growing use of the hashtag #TheSaint is a really great way to find out the latest news, as it happens. Many of the actors and cast are using Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, and Facebook to post their personal updates on an hour-by-hour basis.
Keep using #TheSaint and re-tweet using that tag if you see something that you think the fans of The Saint would be interested in!
Follow @thesaintclub
And, you can also follow @TheSaintClub as we try to keep up and retweet all the news and rumors about The Saint.
Watch for the sign of #TheSaint as he will return in 2013!
Last Friday, the news broke on the latest television incarnation of Leslie Charteris' famous sleuth, Simon Templar, alias The Saint. There have been many rumors about a new show since the 1997 Val Kilmer movie, with such stars as James Purefoy and Dougray Scott attached to them. After years of perseverance, it appears that the efforts have finally paid off and a new TV show of The Saint will start filming in January 2013.
Therefore with much fanfare and trumpeting, it's time to meet the new Saint!
Adam Rayner as Simon Templar, alias The Saint
Adam is English, just as most people expect Simon Templar to be. The Saint has always been English at the heart, with a well-travelled cosmopolitan history that blends him into a true man of the world.
Adam Rayner most recently starred as the lead role in the TV series, Hunted, and is also known for his work on Doctor Who, Making Waves, and Hawthorne.
He has a wealth of TV shows and movies to watch, as Leslie Charteris first authored the Saint in 1928, and it has been in constant rotation ever since.
Eliza Dushku as Patricia Holm Playing Simon Templar's on-again-off-again love interest and partner in crime, Dushku's role of Patricia Holm will hopefully recapture some of the years of history between the two.
Eliza Patricia Dushku is probably most famous for her appearances on the TV show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and she did play the role of the teenage daughter in the classic spy thriller, True Lies.
Production Team:
Roger Moore, co-Producer, the original Simon Templar of the 1960s
Geoffrey Moore, co-Producer
Lulu Moore, co-Producer
Louisa Macdonald, co-Producer
Simon West, Director
Jesse Alexander, Screenwriter & Executive Producer, best known for his work on Lost
Brad Krevoy, Executive Producer, MPCA Production Company
Roman Viaris, Executive Producer
Fred Fuchs, Production
Silverscreen Pictures
Mandy Sherman, Casting, Sherman/Knight
Sari Knight, Casting, Sherman/Knight
Michael MacDermott, Product Placement
Francisco J. González, International Sales
Ian Dickerson, Creative Consultant
No network are attached to this project as of yet. The plan is to shoot the pilot and shop it around.
Production is slated to kick-off this Friday, December 14 in Los Angeles, London and Toronto. Filming to be scheduled in 2013 in Los Angeles and San Diego, with other locations to follow as the series progresses.
We're playing a little bit of catch up here, as all of the RKO films of The Saint from the 1930s 1940s have been out on DVD for a few months now. This is great news for fans of The Saint, as they can now watch Leslie Charteris' creation of Simon Templar be played by George Sanders, Hugh Sinclair, and Louis Hayward in DVD digital quality. And, these have been released in both Region 1 and Region 2 formats. It's time to catch up on these great old films from RKO, and watch the first movies of The Saint all over again for the first time!
Additionally, and just for added interest. You could also pick up a copy of The Falcon collection. When George Sanders left The Saint, RKO made a series of him as The Falcon. These are done in such a similar style, with the same crew, same writers, same casting, same studio, and same promotion, that Leslie Charteris sued them over it. In fact, if you re-read The Saint Steps In, you'll find Charteris having some fun at The Falcon's expense. To us, it's just more Saint films for us to enjoy, albeit under a slightly different name.
The Saint in New York -- There are two films which are MIA... both starring Louis Hayward. In America, you can't find the first Saint film, The Saint in New York, on DVD yet. It is only available in the British series.
The Saint's Girl Friday -- The other missing film is the very last one, from the 1950s. It was released in England in 1953 under the name, The Saint's Return, and distributed by RKO in the USA during
1954 as The Saint's Girl Friday. Neither version is available on DVD at this time.
Moonstone Graphic Novel of The Saint Coming July 2012
As first reported in our 2010 Moonstone Saint announcement, we have been waiting a long time for the latest version of The Saint in comic book form. The wait is almost over! The first issue of the upcoming graphic novel, The Saint, will be published by Moonstone books in July 2012. The story is written by Leslie Charteris and Mel Odom, with original illustrated artwork by Eduardo Barreto.
The comic format will be 16 color pages, and will be priced at $1.99 There will be two different covers, with 80% being the standard, and the other 20% a unique purple cover with a smoke trail of the Saint's stickman logo.
The first new SAINT comic book in America in over 60 years! Soon to be a major television show!
The Robin Hood of modern crime returns!
He robs from the evil and heartless rich, and gives to the wronged and deserving poor–in the process, keeping a percentage for his own expenses. He doesn’t work for the law, the government, or anyone else. He is a lone wolf…an adventurer, a detective, a rogue, but always…a gentleman!
In “The Sizzling Saboteur” – The Saint travels to Texas in pursuit of a man who has been sabotaging weapons factories, but when his quarry turns up burned to crisp, he has to contend with both the local police, a trio of mysterious men behind the sabotage, and a beautiful Russian.
Variety has a report on RKO enlisting a new writer for new 'Saint' which is exciting news. As Ian Dickerson pointed out a while back, "RKO have the rights to remake their films as long as they don't change the dialogue or the length of the pictures. They must be remade as films for the cinema, they do not have any TV rights. So if they remake The Saint Meets the Tiger it'll be 79 min long, Saint in New York 69 mins. Hardly feature film length nowadays."
The long-awaited TV Series is still in the works, and has had multiple false-starts and fresh-starts! The latest fresh-start should be more newsworthy in the very near future. In the meantime, let's read about the RKO remakes!
RKO enlists scribe for new 'Saint' Travis Wright to pen update of durable franchise By Dave McNary
RKO Pictures is reviving Simon Templar and "The Saint," signing Travis Wright ("Eagle Eye") to pen a script based on the debonair hero.
The Saint, a sort of modern-day Robin Hood, was created by Leslie Charteris and first appeared in the 1928 book "Enter the Tiger." Known as the Saint because of his initials, Templar's targets included lowlifes and corrupt politicians; he often left a calling card at his "crimes," a stick figure of a man with a halo -- which served as the logo of the Charteris books, movies, and the 1960s TV series starring Roger Moore.
Movies featuring the Saint began in 1938 with "The Saint in New York," then "The Saint Strikes Back" and several others. Ian Ogilvy starred in the 1978-79 series "Return of the Saint" and Val Kilmer starred in Paramount's 1997 version.
RKO, with a legacy dating back to "Citizen Kane" and "King Kong," is expected to distribute drama "A Late Quartet," starrring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener, and Christopher Walken. Wright and former partner John Glenn wrote drafts for remakes of "Clash of the Titans" at Warner Bros., "Journey to the Center of the Earth" at Fox and "The Warriors" at Paramount. Wright is repped by Benderspink.
The Tainted Archive has a follow-up on the upcoming tale of two Saints, which they call, Will it be the battle of the Saints? Not Spy vs. Spy, but Saint vs. Saint!
As first reported here in December of 2007, James Purefoy is finally at last all set to play the new Simon Templar in the forthcoming TV series of The Saint. We may have jumped the gun a bit back in 2007, but we weren't wrong -- just early!
James Purefoy has written an introduction to Ian Dickerson's The Saint on TV, in which he talks about his forthcoming role as Simon Templar. Shooting is reported to be slated to start in July 2011 in New Orleans.
The newest version of The Saint is being produced by Cajun Pictures who've acquired a pilot script written by William J. MacDonald and Burl Barer.
James Purefoy, who will play the new Saint, was screen tested for the role of James Bond in 1995 for Goldeneye, and throughout 2004 and 2005 Purefoy's name was rumoured as a possible candidate to replace Brosnan as agent 007 in future James Bond films. These rumors surfaced again before the 2006 film, Casino Royale.
In December 2007, James Purefoy was first rumored to have been cast in the role of Simon Templar alias The Saint, and that was put on-hold due to production issues and his role in The Philanthropist. In 2011, it appears that Purefoy is coming back to the role of The Saint!
I am told The Saint will film in July in New Orleans. I’m booked there from mid-July. More news as I get it.
That's about as much as we've heard in quite a while -- the new producers of the forthcoming TV show of The Saint have been extremely quiet, and while we've heard some un-verified rumors about the stars, locations, and scripts; this quote from Sir Roger himself is about as official as it gets for now! More news as we get it.
Both Leslie and Roy were born in Singapore, with elder brother Leslie appearing in 1907 with Roy following in 1910. Roy went to King's College as an Maths undergraduate in 1929, then switched to History and graduated in 1932. Roy developed a passion for the music of the church, and formed lifelong friendships with the Dean of Chapel, Eric Milner-White and the distinguished choirmaster, Director of Music Boris Ord.
in 1934, at the early age of 23, Rev. Yin became the Chaplain (Deacon) at King's College where he served until 1937, and then went on to Hurstpierpoint College in Sussex, where he was Chaplain from 1937 to 1945. In 1946 he became Chaplain and Master of the Choir at St Thomas' College in Mount Lavinia, Sri Lanka, where he stayed until 1962.
He was a vicar at St Hilda's Church in Katong, and finally capped-off his illustrious career as a resident priest at St Andrew's Cathedral -- where his services were always popular with parishioners.
Roy Henry Bowyer-Yin was well-loved, and active in the church until his 90s. He died of old age on Tuesday at his home on the East Coast of Singapore at the age of 100.
It's been non-stop SAINT the past few weeks as we work on the screenplay for the new two hour TV-Movie THE SAINT IN NEW ORLEANS. We keep revising, re-writing, answering network notes, etc. It keeps getting better, and there ARE some very funny lines and some hot-hot action! I thought we had nailed it good with the most recent version, and now we only have a couple very minor notes to address, which we will do tomorrow. So, if all goes well, the world will once again experience the joy, humor, and melodrama of Leslie Charteris' famous hero, THE SAINT.
What was I working on when I paused to write THE SAINT IN NEW ORLEANS? I was working on THE RETURN OF THE SAINT -- a new full length novel set in UK, Malibu, Central America, and (briefly) Finland! Mostly it is in the UK where Inspector Teal has been dragged out of retirement, and finds himself once again dealing with our endearingly dangerous desperado, Simon Templar. Hopefully you will see the new TV show, and the new novel in 2011.
Tomorrow, Tuesday, October 12, TCM will air a marathon of the original black and white Saint movies, titles which remain stubbornly unavailable on DVD in the United States.
The line-up, from TCM's website, is as follows:
10:00 AM The Saint In New York (1938)
11:15 AM The Saint Strikes Back (1939)
12:30 PM The Saint In London (1939)
1:45 PM The Saint's Double Trouble (1940)
3:00 PM The Saint Takes Over (1940)
4:15 PM The Saint In Palm Springs (1941)
5:30 PM The Saint's Vacation (1941)
6:45 PM The Saint Meets the Tiger (1943)
Sad to hear the news today that Roy Ward Baker has passed away a few days ago. Baker is most famous for directing A Night To Remember (1958) for which he won a Golden Globe award, which was then re-done as the Academy Award winning film Titanic.
We're sad to hear that famed actor, Tony Curtis, passed away yesterday. According to reports, Curtis died at his Las Vegas home on September 29, 2010, of an apparent cardiac arrest.
Tony Curtis co-starred with Roger Moore in the TV series The Persuaders! which was based on The Saint episode titled "The Ex-King of Diamonds". The interesting dynamic between the suave Englishman Simon Templar played by Roger Moore and a crass Texas oilman (played by Stuart Damon) was a great combination that Robert S. Baker and Lew Grade extended to a new series starring Tony Curtis in the role of the texan, while keeping Roger Moore as The Saint series came to an end. The Persuaders also featured a number of other parties to The Saint, including many supporting cast members, many of the same writers, and the same director.
Tony was a good friend of Roger Moore's, and was on-hand via conference call when Roger received a blue plaque at Elstree Studios in October 2006.
"He was a fine actor ... I shall miss him," said British actor Roger Moore, who starred alongside Curtis in TV's "The Persuaders."
"He was great fun to work with, a great sense of humour and wonderful ad libs," Moore told Sky News. "We had the best of times."
Roger has also posted the following on his website, "Hearing the news about Tony deeply saddened me today. He was a great friend and a great co-star, and I will forever remember the laughs and fun we shared on The Persuaders and the friendship which endured ever after. His legacy is huge as was his star. I will miss my friend. My thoughts are with Jill and his children at this sad, sad time and I send them much love."
