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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.

Variety reports on new RKO Saint Films in the works

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!
James Purefoy as Simon Templar alias The 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!
Roger Moore to be in New Orleans for the filming of The Saint TV Show
Roger Moore's official website has this very interesting tidbit on his Q and A page for March 2011:
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.
Roy Henry Bowyer-Yin (1910-2010)

Leslie Charteris' brother Roy Henry (Bowyer) Yin, who recently celebrated his 100th birthday on October 7th, passed away at the age of 100 in Singapore this past Tuesday, December 14th.

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.
The Saint in New Orleans
Noted author of the continuing novels of The Saint, Burl Barer, reports:
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.

Simon Templar is The Saint

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