Paramount Pictures is bringing one of the most quintessential franchises of the past century into a new era — with the help of Bridgerton breakout star Rege-Jean Page. On Tuesday, it was confirmed that Page is set to star in and executive produce in Paramount’s new version of The Saint. The story previously got its start as a book series from Leslie Charteris in the 1920s, and was later adaptated into a television series in the 1960s starring Roger Moore, and a 1997 Paramount film starring Val Kilmer. The late Robert Evans, who produced the Kilmer adaptation and passed away in October of 2019, will reportedly get a producer credit.
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The Saint follows Simon Templar, better known as The Saint, a Robin Hood-esque criminal and thief for hire who goes on a globetrotting adventure. While plot details for this pic are being kept under wraps, insiders say this will be a completely new take that reimagines the character and world around him.A reboot of the film has been in the works in some capacity since 2017, with Chris Pratt rumored for the project in 2018 and Chris Pine rumored for it in 2020.
Lorenzo DiBonaventura, Brad Krevoy and Mark Vahradian will produce, with Kwame Kwei-Armah (All Rise, Liberty Road, Marked Man) penning the script.
This is just the latest project that Page has on the docket following his exit from Bridgerton‘s second season, in addition to a role in the Dungeons and Dragons movie and Netflix’s The Gray Man.
“It’s a one-season arc. It’s going to have a beginning, middle, end – give us a year,” Page said of his exit from Bridgerton earlier this year. “[I thought] ‘That’s interesting,’ because then it felt like a limited series. I get to come in, I get to contribute my bit, and then the Bridgerton family rolls on.”
“I don’t think I fully expected or understood what releasing all eight episodes around the globe at once was going to do,” Bridgerton producer Shonda Rhimes said in an interview in May. “And yeah, I was like, ‘I’ve killed many a man that people adore.’ I’m so surprised that everybody is [losing it over a character we’ve watched] for eight episodes leaving. But obviously, Regé is an amazing actor and he did an amazing thing and people responded. I also was surprised because the nature of this series is simply, this year it’s this couple, this year it’s [that] couple.”
“I was just excited about the idea of being able to tell a complete romantic tale that has an end, where you’re not finding 14 other reasons why the couple can’t be together or frankly having Regé stand in the background of somebody else’s romance,” Rhimes added. “That doesn’t make sense.”
What do you think of Rege-Jean Page leading a new version of The Saint? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!
h/t: Deadline
