2000's Saint and Charteris News
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December 21, 2000: Saintly Anniversary
On this date in 1979, having finished its British run, "Return Of The
Saint" makes its American debut as part of the "CBS Late Movie," with Ian
Ogilvy in the role of detective Simon Templar.
December 13, 2000: Saint DVD Schedule
Carlton Video Ltd
(UK) will be releasing more region 2
DVDs in 2001 starting on 12th February. Details below:
12th February 2001,
Volume 2: The Careful Terrorist, The Covetous Headsman, The Loaded Tourist, and The
Pearls of Peace.
Extras include a Stills gallery, The Saint USA paperbacks, and The Saint's Volvo.
14th May 2001,
Volume 3: The Arrow of God, The Element of Doubt, The Effette Angler, and The
Charitable Countess.
Extras to be determined.
9th July 2001,
Volume 4: The Golden Journey, The Romantic Matron, The Man Who Was Lucky, and The
Invisible Millionaire.
Extras to be determined.
All discs retail at £15.99
December 5, 2000: Saint Terence Passes
Terence Feely, British author and contributing screenwriter of television classics 'The Avengers', 'The Prisoner'
and 'The Saint' died in London, August 13th this year.
Saint fans will remember Feely for this contribution to the original show
("The Convenient Monster") as well as his three episodes from the Ogilvy era
("The Armageddon Alternative", "Duel in Venice" and "The Imprudent Professor")
however he also found time to contribute to shows such as 'The New Avengers',
'The Prisoner', 'The Persuaders' and 'Space 1999'.
Longtime Saint Club members may also remember his interview in The Fifth Epistle.
Other notable television projects included "Cats Eyes", "The Gentle Touch"
and several dramatizations of novels by romance writer Dame Barbara Cartland.
He died of undisclosed causes, aged 72.
September 29, 2000: Saint Series on DVD
It has been official confirmed that A&E Home Video has bought the
rights to distribute several classic British shows on DVD. These rights include the
Roger Moore Saint series from the 1960's.
Expect to see The Saint released as 2-disc sets, similiar to other top-notch A&E titles
such as The Prisoner, Monty Python and The Avengers.
September 17, 2000: Thriller UK
ThrillerUK is a new British bi-monthly pulp
fiction fan magazine. ThrillerUK is one fan's attempt to revive an old title and update
it for the new millenium. It's a bi-monthly fan magazine with brand new pulp stories as
well as articles on pulp and vintage fiction. The very first issue features
the Saint and Leslie Charteris, including a Saint logo on the front cover!
"So you're the famous Simon Templar" is the first article in the first issue and
proclaims itself to be a history of the Saint and well, it is.
Most Saint fans probably won't learn anything new but there is one thing that
makes this article stand out from the crowd; it doesn't make any glaring errors.
ThrillerUK is only available by mail order at £2.95. The price includes postage within the UK. Add £0.55 extra for Europe and £2.05 for the US and the rest of the world.
A years subscription (six issues for the price of five) costs £14.75 (UK), £18.00 (Europe) and £25.00 (US/rest of the world).
Please make cheques, postal orders or international money orders (payable in pounds sterling) payable to: T. Fountain and send to: ThrillerUK, 1A, 15 Wilbury Road, Brighton, Sussex, BN3 3JJ, United Kingdom.
September 12, 2000: Return of the Saint's Jaguar
Corgi has just re-released the Saint's Jaguar XJ-S from
The Return of The Saint television show in 1:36 scale. It was
released into the market in July this year, and the model number is 57404. This new version is the
first to come complete with a model of Simon Templar.
The Jaguar is part of Corgi Classic's TV and Film Favourites range, which features a selection of
models, old and new, from the world of film and television.
Corgi currently has no plans to produce the Volvo P1800, however the suggestion has been forwarded to their Design and Development department.
Buy The Saint's Jaguar XJ-S from A&E
August 30, 2000: The Hindenburg Murders
The Hindenburg Murders by
Max Allan Collins is now available in bookstores everywhere. It features world-famous author
Leslie Charteris as the central character in a murder-mystery aboard the Hindenburg.
A pleasant surprise to me was all the nice things that Mr. Collins said about Ian Dickerson,
Burl Barer, www.saint.org, and myself in the afterword to the story. Very nice, and a must-have for fans
looking for a Saintly-type adventure mystery.
August 10, 2000: Burl Barer's New Web Site
Saint expert and Edgar Award-winning author, Burl Barer, now has his own website domain. Check it out at
http://www.burlbarer.com/
July 28, 2000: Burl's Two New Books
Noted Saintly author, Burl Barer, has two new books out, and both are available to order today
from Amazon.com:
Check them out; I'm sure that they are both great!
July 27, 2000: More Saint Videos
Carlton Home Entertainment's
Saint page now
lists a third VHS video (PAL Format) of the Roger Moore series. Coming August 14th, it features volume 5: "The Loaded
Tourist" and volume 6: "The Pearls of Peace".
July 25, 2000: American DVD Episodes
Our sources tell us that the company in the United States that has the rights to the Saint for DVD
is New Video -- the same company that's releasing The Avengers on DVD. They currently have no plans to
release any Saint episodes this year.
Their website at http://www.newvideo.com/ does not list any
e-mail address, but there is a phone number. Perhaps if they got enough requests, they might change their mind?
July 11, 2000: British DVD Episodes
Sharp-eyed UK fans may have noticed that Return of the Saint videos and DVD's
did not appear as promised on June 26th from
Carlton Home Entertainment.
This is because the quality of the masters is so poor that Carlton have
decided to delay the releases whilst they get them cleaned up resulting in,
they hope, better quality tapes and DVD's.
July 10, 2000: Saint Theme Nokia Ring
Your Mobile features free ring tones for
mobile phones. If you look under the "Soundtracks - TV" section you'll find the Saint
theme available in many formats for many different cell phones.
You can listen to the songs, send them to yourself via e-mail, or download the text format. Sending via e-mail is
the recommended approach, as you can fine-tune the song for exactly the model of phone that you have.
Example of text format for Nokia phones: Tempo=125,8g1,16c#2,8d2,8g1,8c2,32p,4a#1,2p,4p,8g1,16c#2,8d2,8g1,8c2,32p,
4a#1,8c2,16f#2,8g2,8c2,8f2,32p,4d#2,8g1,16c#2,8d2,8g1,8c2,32p,4a#1,2g1,
May 23, 2000: The Saint on American TV
Encore's Mystery Channel is currently running the Roger Moore Saint series
every weekday. Times differ, but are generally around 4:30 or so on the West Coast. The Mystery Channel is available on
Digital Cable and certain Satellite services.
May 19, 2000: Ian and Roger on British Saint DVD's
June 26th sees the release of two volumes of THE SAINT starring Roger Moore
on VHS video. Released by Carlton Home Entertainment,
volume 1 features "The Talented Husband" and "The Latin Touch" whilst volume 2 features "The Careful
Terrorist" and "The Covetous Headsman". At present the DVD will only be available for region 2
(Europe, Middle East and Japan only).
Saint fans will no doubt be dipping into their retirement funds in late June
as June 26th also sees the release of two volumes of RETURN OF THE SAINT on
VHS video. Also let loose by Carlton, volume 1 features "The
Judas Game" and "The Nightmare Man" whilst volume 2 features "Duel in Venice"
and "One Black September". Saint Ian makes his debut on DVD!
May 3, 2000: Burl Barer Rumors
Mace Neufield (famed producer) is rumored to be seriously
considering Saintly author Burl Barer's true crime action/comedy
MAN OVERBOARD
as a major motion picture. No comment from Barer or his agent,
except to verify that several producers, both in USA and in at least one
other country, have recently expressed interest in the project. They would
say no more.
April 2, 2000: No Bale for the Saint
In response to the past few news articles, Harrison Cheung, Christian Bale's manager reports
that Christian never "bailed out" on the Saint project since he was never involved in or
considered for the project, and you can quote him on this.
Secondly, Harrison corrects the statement that Bale "has even personally expressed interest in
the idea" as completely untrue. Christian Bale had never expressed interested in The Saint, personally
or otherwise. In fact, Christian spoke to the Daily Mirror
directly last weekend whilst he was on a press tour for AMERICAN PSYCHO to correct their story, as well
as clear up some of the other facts that they got wrong: Christian is not 25. He did not do EMPIRE OF THE SUN at age 12. And he
has never considered doing a television series, regardless of the director.
I hope this clears up any ambiguities.
April 2, 2000: UNICEF Honors Saint Roger
From The Associated Press, April 2, 2000:
UNICEF HONORS 'JAMES BOND' STAR
ODENSE, Denmark (AP) - Roger Moore, a UNICEF goodwill ambassador since 1991,
received a Hans Christian Andersen prize Sunday in honor of the famed fairy
tale writer's 195th birthday.
Moore, best known for his movie roles as James Bond, received an undisclosed
amount of money for the U.N. Children's Fund that goes with the Andersen
Honorary Award, given by local entrepreneurs.
An actor disguised as a soldier from the Andersen fairytale "The Tin Box"
gave Moore the money in a rucksack, saying it was "full of gold coins."
"You have two hands. One for helping yourself, the other hand for helping
others," Moore told the audience of 2,500, asking them never to forget the
children of the world.
Event official Niels Langkilde said it was standard procedure not to
disclose amounts given to UNICEF ambassadors.
© Copyright 2000 The Associated Press
March 30, 2000: Roger Says Goodbye to "Q"
From APBnews, March 30, 2000:
BOND STARS SAY GOODBYE TO 'Q'
Roger Moore was among the James Bond actors who gathered in London recently to pay tribute
to Desmond Llewelyn. The actor, who played gadget-guru Q in several Bond flicks, was
killed at the age of 85 in an automobile accident Dec. 19.
"I don't think the James Bond films will be the same without Desmond Llewelyn," said
Moore, the third actor to play Bond, at a memorial service at St. Paul's Church.
"Bond cannot exist without Q's gadgets."
© Copyright 2000 APB Online, Inc.
March 28, 2000: UPN Passes on The Saint
From the New York Post, March 28, 2000:
'SAINT' ain't so, UPN
By Adam Buckman
UPN has turned thumbs-down on a new TV version of 'The Saint'. The
project never made it to the pilot stage. A UPN spokesman confirmed
yesterday that UPN passed on the proposed show, which had set 'Saint' web
sites abuzz for the last two weeks, following British newspaper reports
that a new show was in the works.
According to the reports, The Saint--the nickname given to suave
sleuth Simon Templar in the series of international bestsellers written by
the late Leslie Charteris--was to have been played by Christian Bale.
Bale, 25, became a star after playing the lead role at age 12 in
Steven Spielberg's 'Empire of the Sun' in 1987. More recently, he starred
as a serial killer in the upcoming movie version of the controversial
novel, 'American Psycho' by Bret Easton Ellis.
But sources indicate that Bale, who had never committed to it in
the first place, may have bailed out in recent days in favor of pursuing
movie roles.
A new version would have been the fourth TV incarnation of 'The
Saint.' The first and best known 'Saint' series, starring Roger Moore, was
produced in England from 1963 to 1968 and syndicated in the US. Subsequent
versions featured Ian Oglivy ('Return of the Saint', 1978-79) and Simon
Dutton ('Mystery Wheel of Adventure:The Saint', 1987-88). Val Kilmer
recently starred in a movie version.
George Sanders played 'The Saint' in a series of movies in the
1930s and 40s and Vincent Price played him on the radio.
© Copyright 2000 by The New York Post, a NYP Holdings, Inc. company.
March 27, 2000: The Baleful Saint
The latest news on the new Saint TV show is that
John McTiernan and company have signed with UPN
to create at the very least a pilot episode, but are still looking for an actor
who will sign for five years. Christian Bale has been discussed, and he has even personally
expressed interest in the idea, but apparently he has just signed onto a new movie and the
idea of doing a TV series isn't going over to well with his advisors. This doesn't mean he is
completely out of the running, as this show is certainly high-profile enough for most; it
could even lead to James Bond with Brosnan steps down in, say, five years (sound familiar Roger?).
In any case, keep your eyes open for a rebuttal and short interview by Bale in the Mirror in the
near future to debunk their story...
And that's not all on the news front today with regards to the new show.
Word is that they also are in need of some good scripts, especially the one for the pilot. Since it
is a John McTiernan job, the screenwriters are sending along scripts along the lines of "The Saint Dies Hard",
and so far they have all been rejected.
McTiernan's vision for the show is of a gentleman cat burglar something along the lines of Cary Grant in "To Catch A Thief" -- my personal
all-time favorite Hitchcock movie -- which would fit right in nicely with McTiernan's last work on
The Thomas Crown Affair.
It is too early to tell, but it sounds like McTiernan might actually understand the Saint, and that's good news!
Further news is that the show will likely not be in UPN's fall lineup, but may be ready
in time for a mid-season debut. Much of the crew is supposed to be set, but besides no actor and
no script, the shooting schedule has not been set either.
March 18, 2000: A Christian Saint?
From the London Daily Mirror, March 18, 2000:
HALO.. HE'S BACK
New series of The Saint to star pin-up Christian
CLASSIC Sixties TV series The Saint is to be remade for a fourth time - with
heart-throb Christian Bale as the supersmooth sleuth Simon Templar.
The young British star, who found fame aged 12 in Steven Spielberg's 1987
wartime drama Empire Of The Sun, will take on the role made famous by Roger
Moore. The series will be firmly based on the original ATV show in which
Moore played the suave and very English crime-fighter.
But this time Templar is a millionaire with a dubious reputation who is a
bit bored with his life.
Bale beat other Brit pin-ups including Jude Law, Ioan Grufudd and Jack
Davenport to land the plum part.
The 25-year old Bourne-mouth-born actor is trying to shed his good guy image
and has just starred as a serial killer in the movie
American Psycho.
One source said last night: "Christian may seem a little on the young side
to play The Saint but he's got the looks and the mesmerising gaze essential
for the part.
"He clinched the job after playing golf for a whole weekend with the show's
executives - and he absolutely detests golf."
Christian, who has also starred in the glamrock movie Velvet Goldmine, said
last year: "I don't mind being called a sex symbol if it helps sell the
film. To be honest, I love being called a sex symbol. It's great when girls
think I'm cute."
American network UPN has snapped up the rights to the new series. Rival
British broadcasters are now in a multi-million pound bidding war.
While the part of a modern day Robin Hood catapulted Moore to stardom it has
left several other actors' careers in tatters.
Millions tuned in to the show when it ran from 1963-1968, as Moore practised
his cool eyebrow-raising for his follow-up role of James Bond.
The series emblem of a matchstick man with a halo became a classic TV
trademark.
Ian Ogilvy revived the character in The Return of The Saint from 1978 to
1981. Another short-lived series starred Simon Dutton in 1987-88.
A big screen version with Val Kilmer was a box office flop three years ago.
George Sanders starred first in the 1930s, followed by Vincent Price on
radio.
Then there was a comic strip version before TV established Moore as the
definitive sleuth with a heart of gold.
© Copyright 2000 by The London Daily Mirror.
March 17, 2000: Leslie Charteris on the Hindenburg
The Hindenburg Murders by
Max Allan Collins is due out in June, and features world-famous author Leslie Charteris as the central
character in a murder-mystery aboard the Hindenburg.
While Charteris was not aboard the fatal flight of the Hindenburg, Max Allan Collins used him anyway,
because Charteris had been rather famously aboard the maiden flight, and
wrote about his experiences on the airship. Max loved the Saint as a kid, and thought
this would be great way to do a faux-Saint novel, complete with Charteris' witty chapter titles.
The mystery in the book relates directly to the cause of the disaster.
Here is an excerpt from some ad copy for the book:
The date is May 3, 1937. The legendary Hindenburg has just left Frankfurt
on its final, fateful voyage across the Atlantic. And passenger Leslie
Charteris has a terrible sense of foreboding . . . .
The author of a world-famous mystery series featuring a benevolent sleuth
called the Saint, Charteris was puzzled by the overzealous security at
check-in--and disturbed to find the Hindenburg under Nazi control. But when
an undercover Gestapo agent disappears the next day, it becomes clear to
Charteris that his apprehension was not unwarranted.
Asked to investigate, Charteris soon uncovers his fellow passengers' most
dangerous secrets. But a number of disturbing events occur during the
doomed dirigible's final hours--and only Charteris will know what really
sparked the explosion that made the Hindenburg go down in
flames . . . .
February 15, 2000: Golden Saint
This Thursday, February 17th, in Monte Carlo, Monaco, Roger Moore
will receive a Gold Nymph award for his long service to television.
The award will be presented at the Monte Carlo Television Festival.
January 19, 2000: Saint Newsgroup
Today a new USENET newsgroup was created called
alt.fan.the-saint!
Please let your ISP that they should carry this fantastic new newsgroup.
January 18, 2000: New UPN Saint Show
Rumors abound about a new Saint TV pilot that is in the works for UPN this year.
The January 18th Long Island Newsday reported in their T.V. section that UPN has a number of
"testosterone-fueled" projects in the works for next season. Among them is a new
TV adaptation of "The Saint" from executive producer John McTiernan ("The Thomas Crown Affair" remake).
A Philadelphia paper reported that among the dramas in development for UPN
next season is an adaptation of The Saint by John McTiernan ("Die Hard").
January 1, 2000: Saint 2000
Happy New Year, and as always: Watch for the sign of the Saint. He will return.
News and Rumors Archives
If you want more Saint news, there was lots of news in
2010,
2009,
2008,
2007,
2006,
2005,
2004,
2003,
2002,
2001,
2000,
1999,
1998,
late 1997,
early 1997,
1996, and
1995.
As always, be sure to check The Saint's News and Rumors Blog on a regular basis.
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