Deadline has brought word that Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom star Chris Pratt has entered early negotiations to star in the lead role of the upcoming Paramount Pictures reboot of the action franchise The Saint.
RELATED: A New The Saint Movie is in the Works at Paramount
The Simon Templar character made his debut in Leslie Charteris’ 1928 novel Meet the Tiger. It was followed by Enter the Saint, which Charteris is said to have considered the official start of the long-running book series. That series would continue for more than half a century and inspire quite a few adaptations across a wide variety of mediums, including a popular television series that ran from 1962 to 1969 and introduced the world to future James Bond Roger Moore. Before that, though, a The Saint movie franchise was produced at RKO Pictures between 1938 and 1943. Of course, modern audiences are more likely to remember the 1997 The Saint movie, directed by Phillip Noyce and starring Val Kilmer in the title role.
Though the Kilmer-led film adaptation was not very well-received by critics, it was a modest success with audiences and was a hit at the box office, grossing over $61 million at the domestic box office and over $118 million at the global box office on a $68 million budget.
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It was only a few years ago that the attempt was made to reboot The Saint for the small screen. A pilot for a new television series was shot, directed by Con Air‘s Simon West and starring Adam Rayner and Eliza Dushku. It did not end up becoming a series, however, and the pilot was only finally released direct-to-video in 2017 in correlation with Moore’s passing.
Talks with Pratt are still very early, but given his star status right now it would help get the ball rolling on the reboot were Paramount to sign the star in the lead role. Lorenzo di Bonaventura (Transformers franchise) is currently set to produce the upcoming reboot.
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