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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Wednesday, July 12, 2017
The Saint starring Adam Rayner now Available
The Saint (Adam Rayner and Eliza Dushku)
It's Here! It's Here!
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.
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.
