Will “The Saint” Return to TV?

The Saint may be coming back to TV, according to The Hollywood Reporter. To track his origins we have to travel back in time, lucky for us I’ve brought my pink convertible that time travels and never gets dirty. Hop on in! (Sorry, my TV boyfriend of the day, John Krasinski from The Office, already called shot gun.)

In 1962 Roger Moore (you know him as James Bond) was Simon Templar, aka The Saint. In 1979 Ian Ogilvy was the new Saint in The Return of the Saint. In 1989 Simon Dutton was in a TV movie version of The Saint. In 1997 Val Kilmer took up the role in the movie The Saint, alongside the whimsically adorable Elizabeth Shue. And in 2008, it looks like we may see Simon Templar yet again. And he hasn’t aged at all. Is he using Botox?

The question to ask is, who will portray Simon Templar this time? Possibly James Purefoy. Purefoy played Mark Antony in the TV show Rome. You might also know him from the movies A Knight’s Tale and Resident Evil.
There was an attempt to revive The Saint TV show in 2000, and 2004. So, this particular attempt might not prove more successful. But this time it does have the support of Roger Moore, himself. James Bond approves!

The show apparently has tons of funding, and a two-hour pilot is in the works (with lots of different location shoots).

I can’t speak too much of the TV series, since well – I wasn’t actually alive in the 60’s, and in the 80’s I was mostly just watching cartoons. However, I did see the 1997 movie, and I love it. It’s a blended drink of action/adventure, drama, romance – and a pinch of comedy.

This was literally one of the only movies that one of my high school friends and I could ever agree upon to watch, as our tastes differed so widely. (Read: She wanted to listen to Gunz N’ Roses, and I wanted to listen to The Cranberries.)

I think we identified with Simon Templar, The Saint, because he plays so many parts, much like the way teenagers do. The following is a quote I’ve always liked:

Emma Russell: Who are you?
Simon Templar: Nobody has a clue. Least of all me.

The Saint DVD

One of the reasons we loved the movie was because of the music. Since I love to recommend movie/DVD soundtracks, I feel I would do you a disservice not to let you know about it. On the album The Chemical Brothers have a song called Setting Sun that can kick me into an energized mode even at 6 a.m. on a Monday morning. The same can be said of The Saint theme, as played by Orbital. More ambient songs include: Sneaker Pimps – 6 Underground and Superior - Polaroid Millennium.

The Saint: Soundtrack

I will be very interested to see if this series comes to fruition. If it does, I’ll be watching. What about you?
Until later,

Jessica Rae

Images from starpulse.com

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