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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"The Saint" is marching back to television via a contemporary take on the Leslie Charteris' books, with James Purefoy in talks to topline as the debonair international thief Simon Templar.
Producers Barry Levinson and Tom Fontana, writer Jorge Zamacona, feature producer Bill Macdonald, Roger Moore -- who played Templar in the 1960s British series -- and his son Geoffrey Moore are all involved in the project.
Levinson is set to direct the two-hour TV movie/backdoor pilot, which will be produced independently and then shopped to the networks.The project is backed by Nehst Studios, a financing, production and distribution company that recently partnered with Lexicon Filmed Entertainment to share $250 million from private-equity sources to finance features, TV series and Web series.
Macdonald has been associated with "Saint" on and off for 17 years. In 1991, he acquired the rights to the books for producer Robert Evans. The two went on to produce the 1997 feature starring Val Kilmer as the dapper adventurer.
In 2004, Macdonald teamed with Zamacona and Roger and Geoffrey Moore to bring the "Saint" franchise to television. The four formed Templar Entertainment Group, through which they acquired the TV rights to Charteris' novels.The new "Saint" series was created by Zamacona, who penned the pilot script, and Macdonald.
The project was originally set up at TNT, which announced it as part of its 2007 development slate last March.TNT later passed on it, and the rights reverted to the producers. Macdonald and Zamacona might have gone the traditional route -- trying to find a new network home for the show -- if it hadn't been for the writers strike.With development activity in Hollywood screeching to a halt and Macdonald and Zamacona joining the picket lines, the producers began to mull producing the pilot and the potential series independently and seeking a network partner later.
They were well into raising financing for the project when the strike ended. "The strike changed our strategy because no one knew how long it was going to be, but producing the project independently gives us a lot more creative freedom," Macdonald said.During the strike, Zamacona approached Levinson and Fontana, who had given him his first writing job on "Homicide: Life on the Street." The two came on board to executive produce "Saint" with Macdonald, Zamacona and Geoffrey Moore, and Levinson agreed to direct.
"One of the things we lost a little bit of in the movie but want to bring to the TV series is that Simon Templar is very funny character with great lines and situation humor, and I don't think there is anybody better than Levinson to tackle that," Macdonald said.
The producers then went after Purefoy, who recently starred on the HBO/BBC series "Rome," which was co-created and executive produced by Macdonald.Casting is under way for the other key parts in the pilot: Inspector Claud Eustace Teal, the Interpol agent in charge of tracking Templar; Templar's romantic interest/assistant, Patricia Holm; and his enemy-turned-partner in crime, Baldwin Aleppo.
Filming on the two-hour telefilm, whose script was reworked after the strike, is expected to begin in April in Budapest, Hungary, New York and Puerto Rico.The project is funded for seasons to come, Nehst founder and chairman Larry Meistrich said.
"We are committed to financing the pilot and deficiting the potential series," he said.Added CEO Ari Friedman, "I think it's a really good time for a project like this, and we are confident we can find a home for it."The two-hour movie/backdoor pilot model was used successfully to launch an updated version of another classic action-adventure series, "Knight Rider," which is expected to be picked up to series by NBC after the movie scored big ratings last month."Saint" was packaged by CAA. Levinson is repped by ICM.
Roger Moore starred on, produced and directed several episodes of the original British "Saint," which ran on ITV from 1962-69 and in syndication in the U.S. from 1963-66 and as a summer series on NBC from 1967-69.
In the past 10 years, there have been two attempts by broadcast networks to remake the series. In 2000, UPN teamed with director John McTiernan and ATG, while ABC took a stab at the franchise in 2004 with writer Stephen Nathan and "American Idol" producer FremantleMedia North America, which owned the rights at the time.
Members of The Saint Club recently recieved the annual Saint Club Christmas Letter from Ian Dickerson with some news about a couple forthcoming publications:
Hodder & Stoughton will be publishing two Saint anthologies in the Autumn of 2008. Unoriginally entitled The Best of the Saint (volumes 1 and 2) they'll feature a selection of stories from across the Saint's career (including one which has never appeared in an English paperback before); each volume will also have an introduction from a notable Saint (or Saint fan) plus some additional material by me. Current plans are for each book to have a yellow jacket cover, along the lines of the old H&S style.
Next year will also see the publication of the definitive history of the Saint's television adventures. Currently and unoriginally entitled The Saint on TV, it's written by me (Ian Dickerson) and if you thought the story of the Saint on TV started with Roger Moore, well this book will show you otherwise. It starts in 1940s Hollywood and this book follows the Saint on TV right up to the present day and the new show in development.
Amongst other things it provides a unique episode guide to all three Saint TV series detailing plots, cast, crew, filming locations and critical reaction. It also comprehensively details what many of the cast and crew have been up to since they met the Saint. And perhaps of more interest to you lot, tells the full story behind The Saint in Manhattan and The Saint (with Simon Dutton) using exclusive interviews with many of the cast and crew involved on the productions to analyse what went wrong.
There's loads more in it but I'm not spilling all my beans here. If you want to know more about it, or the two reprints, keep checking www.lesliecharteris.com because that's where the latest news will be.
Sir Roger Moore was honored with a star on Hollywood's "Walk of Fame" last Thursday, October 11th, just three days ahead of his 80th birthday.
Roger Moore was present at a morning ceremony which saw the 2,350th star unveiled on Hollywood Boulevard. Moore's star is aptly located at 7007 Hollywood Blvd. The honor was for his work in such movies as the James Bond series from 1973 and 1985. Roger is the third Bond to be so honored, joining Sean Connery and Pierce Brosnan on the prestigious walk.
Sir Roger George Moore, KBE (born 14 October 1927) is an English actor known for his suave and witty demeanour. He may be best known for portraying two British action heroes, Simon Templar in the television series The Saint from 1962 to 1969, and James Bond in seven films from 1973 to 1985. He has been a UNICEF ambassador since 1991.
Happy 80th Birthday Roger, and congratulations on the star!
We're sorry to hear that Lois Maxwell passed away in Australia on Saturday from cancer.
Lois Maxwell was probably best known to the world from her role as Miss Moneypenny in the James Bond films, but that was probably the smallest part she ever played. Saint fans might also remember that she guest-starred with Roger Moore in the October 7, 1966 episode of The Saint, entitled, Interlude in Venice.
Bond star Sir Roger Moore, who had known her for more than 60 years, spoke to the BBC about his friend and co-star:
I'd known Lois from the beginning of my acting career, we were both drama students at Rada in 1944 and 1945.
We first played opposite each other in Pride and Prejudice. I was Darcy, she was Elizabeth. She was a very fine actress with a great sense of humour.
I think it was a great disappointment to her that she had not been promoted to play M. She would have been a wonderful M.
Lois was wonderful, absolutely perfect casting. It was a great pity that after I moved out of Bond, that they didn't take her on to continue in the Timothy Dalton films.
She had a tremendous sense of humour. She used to sing dirty songs, from the Canadian women's army in which she'd served.
We'd done a number of episodes of The Saint and The Persuaders together, so over the past 60 years I'd seen a great deal of her. But unfortunately, not over the last couple of years.
She had a quite a wide range of parts before she went into the Bond franchise. I'm afraid she got sort of typecast as Miss Moneypenny, that's what producers do, unfortunately, they put people in categories, they don't seem to move people out of them.
At the National Movie Awards, I presented an award to [Bond producers] Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson. It's a pity the timing was so bad, we really could have given her a tribute then.
Occasionally, and for no reasonable reason, there is groundswell of interest in a particular random topic. Such is the case this week with The Wild Geese, a movie starring Saint Roger Moore in 1978. Amazon's review explains that, "Mixing action, humor, sentiment, and even a few righteous moral convictions, The Wild Geese is good, rousing fun."
Released theatrically 29 years ago in 1978 (even though the 2005 DVD release was promoted as the "30th Anniversary Edition"), The Wild Geese depicts the adventures of a group of British mercenaries hired by a shady multinational corporation to free the benevolent leader of an African nation held captive by a ruthless dictator. Led by the caustic, no-nonsense Col. Allen Faulkner (played by Richard Burton), these soldiers of fortune are all stout fellows out to earn a big payday and restore a good man to his rightful place of power.
Watch for a filming goof during the parachute jump. When they leave the plane, the soldiers are wearing helmets, but as soon as they land, in some cases even before collapsing their parachutes, they've switched to berets -- and no discarded helmets are visible on the ground.
The cast includes Richard Harris, Roger Moore, and a host of other fine veteran actors. The Wild Geese is a very enjoyable ride.
Photoshoot and trailer for German TV. Sir Roger Moore has taken part in a photoshoot and trailer for German television channel Das Vierte to promote "The Persuaders" and "The Saint" being shown on the network from 1st September 2007. The shoot took place in Monaco, where Sir Roger also gave a comprehensive interview which will be shown on the channel on 2nd September 2007. A German translation of the transcript is on the network's website. Source: MI6
To read the interview (in German) and see the 14 photos, please visit the web.de site. You can also read a very badly worded English translation of the Roger Moore interview using Google's automatic translation service.
Before Roger Moore became The Saint, he had a recurring role on the TV series, Maverick, starring either James Garner and Jack Kelly.
Now that Maverick is being re-run on TV in various countries, including Good Life in the US, watch for a young pre-Saint Roger Moore in 14 episodes from 1959 to 1961. Roger was a regular on the show beginning in 1960 (he had been in one episode, The Rivals before that), co-starring as Beauregard "Beau" Maverick, Bret and Bart Maverick’s cousin. His regular appearances were due to the fact that James Garner had left the show over a contract dispute.
Maverick was a clever show that used a lot of comedy to lighten up the action. There are many Saintly touches, in that the Maverick cousins are basically good people who will go outside the law to correct wrongs that need to be righted. The intelligent con games of outsmarting your rivals instead of beating them up will certainly appeal to Saint fans who want to see a young Roger Moore playing a Texas Templar.
Episode 80 on September 18, 1960, entitled Bundle from Britain, introduced Roger Moore as the "white sheep" of the family -- he had the misfortune of earning a medal in the Civil War, and Pappy had banished him to England for five years because no Maverick had ever been a hero.
Roger Moore was highlighted in the main feature area of the UK version of the BBC's home page today. This prime spotlight was in connection with the BBC Radio 4 show that Roger narrates, and is well worth the listen!
Leslie Charteris -- A Saintly Centennial Listen Online
Roger Moore celebrates the life of Leslie Charteris, the creator of The Saint, one of the longest-running characters in detective fiction.
BBC Radio 4 has posted a RealAudio stream of Leslie Charteris: A Saintly Centennial. The link will only be available for seven days: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/ram/tue1130.ram
You will need to download the latest RealPlayer from Real.com in order to listen to Barbra Paskin's radio tribute to Leslie Charteris as narrated by Roger Moore.
Don't forget to tune in tomorrow for Barbra Paskin's tribute to 100 years of Leslie Charteris with Roger Moore narrating. The live show is at 11:30am tomorrow, London time, with on-demand replays available for seven days after the initial broadcast.
Roger Moore, who starred as Simon Templar in the original TV series, celebrates the centenary of the birth of popular fiction writer Leslie Charteris, famous for his adventures featuring the character better known as The Saint. The programme includes rare interview footage of Charteris along with contributions from his family, actor Ian Ogilvy and Charteris biographer Ian Dickerson.
There has been some recent issues with BBC Radio 4's RealAudio play back, and during testing today, this is the message that was being displayed:
We are experiencing severe technical problems, and regret that many programmes are unavailable. We are working to restore normal service. See station websites for alternative links.
We'll keep you posted as to the lastest links and news about this great show.
Mike Reid, famous for his role as Frank Butcher on the Eastenders, and not-so-famous for being Roger Moore's stunt double on The Saint, passed away on July 29th. Look for Mike in various scenes of The Saint as the much taller Simon Templar doing the really dangerous work!
Mike Reid, 'the great storyteller' and comedian, dies at the age of 67
Mike Reid, the actor and master of the politically incorrect joke, died yesterday, aged 67.
His agent, David Hahn, told the BBC that the stand-up comic was in Marbella, Spain, where he owned a villa, when he suffered a fatal heart attack while apparently in good health.
"Mike was in fine fettle. Only a couple of weeks ago we were having dinner and Mike went to see his consultant that day, had a full medical and they gave him a clean bill of health."
Reid played Frank Butcher in the BBC soap opera EastEnders and starred in the British gangster film, Snatch. Born in Hackney, London, he began his career as a stuntman, working on films such as Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Spartacus, as well as on The Saint as a stunt double for Roger Moore.
Rising to fame on London's comedy circuit, Reid worked as a stand-up comedian in the 1960s in clubs and cruise liners. His big break came in the seventies in a popular television series, The Comedians, that consisted of short slots by mature comedians.
Reid had a daughter by his first marriage and two sons by his second wife, Shirley Collins. Last night, Mr Hahn said of Reid's wife: "Mike was her life."
The entertainer Russ Abbot said Reid was a great story-teller who had a great sense of comic timing. "There are certain comedians who do one-liners, but Mike was a story-teller and a great deliverer," he said.
Reid's close friend and fellow comedian Frank Carson, speaking in Spain, said his death was "absolutely devastating".
Burl Barer reports a few more details about the upcoming BBC Radio 4 special by Barbra Paskin on the author of The Saint, Leslie Charteris.
Leslie Charteris – A Saintly Centennial Tuesday, July 31, 2007 11:30am - 12:00noon BBC Radio 4
This year marks the centenary of the birth of popular fiction writer Leslie Charteris, best known for his many books chronicling the adventures of Simon Templar, alias The Saint. In this special programme, actor and Saint portrayer Roger Moore explores the life and legacy of Charteris and reveals a world of adventure, torment, insecurity, failed marriages and enormous success as a thriller writer.
The adventures of The Saint have appeared continuously since 1928, making Simon Templar the longest-running character in contemporary detective fiction. But there was more to Charteris's literary acuity than The Saint alone. He was fluent in several languages; he had a monthly column in the epicurial delight, Gourmet magazine; and he devised a pictorial sign language which he called "Paleneo" and wrote a book about it. He was also one of the earliest members of Mensa.
Despite his film-star looks, with a hint of exoticism, Charteris suffered from a long-standing insecurity about his appearance, arising from his mixed racial origin. In later years he dated some of Hollywood's most beautiful women, among them Marlene Dietrich and Jean Harlow.
It wasn't until 1963, when Lou Grade cast Roger Moore and filmed the first television series of The Saint, that Charteris at last felt he'd received the final seal of approbation that had eluded him for 30 years.
Among those exploring the world and psyche of Charteris are Dan Bodenheimer, who runs the official Saint website; Burl Barer, author of The History Of The Saint; and Charteris's biographer Ian Dickerson.
Barbara Peterson has created a five-page synopsis of The Fiction-Makers, one of the Saint movies starring Roger Moore as Simon Templar. This movie was orginally aired as a two-part episode in 1967. The synopsis is fully illustrated with screen-shots from the recent DVD release.
The secret organization that The Saint goes up against in The Fiction-Makers is the Secret World Order For Revenge and Destruction, also known as S.W.O.R.D.
The goal of Volcano Seven is to pay tribute to "caper" films and TV shows. The debut of Volcano Seven starts with The Fiction-Makers synopsis, and there is sure to be more to follow in the near future!
The Lipstick Chronicles (where the Book Tarts talk love, laughter, laundry and the mysteries of writing life) has just published a nice essay by William Simon on Black and White Heroes that has provoked a lot of excitement and response. The basic premise is that in the days of old, heroes were heroes and you could tell them from the bad guys without too much effort. Nowadays, in an effort to be dark and realistic, all the good guys are much darker shades of grey and not that much different than the evil that they are fighting.
This will be a bigger issue when the Saint returns to TV in the near future on TNT. How will a modern-day Saint still retain the gentleman touch and yet still be able to relate to the new darker side of the underworld with the good humor and aplomb we have come to know and love?
William's essay ends with:
Back to the point, look around today and we have no heroes on television. We have sociopathic psychos with badges who ram guns down people's throats and yell "Suck THIS, pal!", and they are usually some sort of recovering addict, be it alcohol/drugs, sex, or gambling. We have characters who kill as easily as they sneeze. Stealing is perfectly acceptable, as long as no one gets caught. No damsel needs rescuing, and if she does it's usually a setup to try and kill the protagonist. It is entertaining for him to slap/hit/threaten her, usually while screaming her marked resemblance to a female canine at the top of his lungs. Lie, cheat, steal, hurt, no matter; it's okay, the end justifies the means. Results are what count, not the methods to achieve them, and if you don't believe that, take a close look at the Business World today.
Heroes should be above the crowd; polished but not effete, superior but not snide, capable but not arrogant, strong but not uncaring.
Special.
Today, we have no Bogart, or Gable, or Cooper. We don't have a Gardner, a Bacall, a Hepburn.
From: Bill Krzastek Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2007 23:12:24 -0400 Subject: ST1's Trip To Canada Part 2
Hello to All,
Welcome to Part 2 of "ST1"s trip to Canada. While at the Fleetwood Country Cruize-In at London, Ontario, ST1 was visited by another legend, Mr. George Barris, the "King of the Kustomizers". Mr. Barris is known worldwide for the many custom, film, and TV cars he designed and built since the 1950's such as the TV Batmobile, Munsters Coach, the Ala Kart, and dozens of others. Several of Mr. Barris's creations were on display but even he was interested in seeing "ST1", the Roger Moore "Saint" Volvo.
Mr. Barris has a website where he interviews people and talks about their cars. He chose "ST1" to be part of this and in the attached photos, we see Mr. Barris interviewing me (and vice-versa) about the car. During the interview, I found out that Mr. Barris has a connection to Roger Moore: turns out that Mr. Barris built a car for Sir Roger's first Bond film "Live and Let Die" and had actually met Mr. Moore during filming. "A real gentleman" is how Mr. Barris described Sir Roger.
Also on hand was Tony Davey, restorer of "ST1" who had flown over from England for the show. Tony is seen being interviewed by Mr. Barris in one of the photos. Plus, Irv Gordon, owner of the 2+ million mile Volvo can be seen in the backround of the first photo being interviewed from the folks from Old Cars Television. Small world indeed.
From: Bill Krzastek Date: Wed, 13 Jun 2007 09:19:48 -0400 Subject: ST1's Trip To Canada Part 1
Hello to All,
What an amazing weekend in London, Ontario at Steve Plunkett's Country Cruize-In. Not only did we have a great time but over $150,000 was raised for charity. We are glad that "ST1" was chosen to help participate in this "Saintly" endeavor. While at the show, I had the opportunity to meet and greet many fans of "The Saint" and Sir Roger Moore. It always surprises me to hear that people come to the show to specifically see "ST1" when there are so many other attractions. One family had each of their 5 family members take turns behind the wheel for photos! It's nice to know that this car meant so much to so many people.
We were interviewed several times about the car and it's history but two interviews really stand out: the first was by Rick Walker of Old Autos Television. In the photos that follow, we decided it would be fun to try to recreate the original publicity photos of Sir Roger and "ST1". I posed for the boot shot then persuaded Rick to please take over for the others. As you can see, the photos definitely improved by my absence!
In Part 2, we have a very special interviewer so... "Watch for the car of The Saint, it will return".
Some of the Roger Moore TV series has been published on DVD in Finland as three special DVD box sets.
The Saint was known as Pyhimys in Finland, and there were comic books and paperback editions of many of The Saint books by Leslie Charteris.
Pyhimys Vol. 1 is an 8-disc Box set, Pyhimys Vol. 2 is a 4-disc Box set, and Pyhimys Vol. 3 is a 2-disc Box set of the two Roger Moore Saint movies: Vendetta for The Saint and The Fiction-Makers.
Barbra Paskin, a British yet Hollywood-based, journalist has been commissioned by BBC Radio 4 to create a radio show celebrating the 100th year of Leslie Charteris. Barbra, who is most recently noted for her fine biography of Dudley Moore, is an excited Saint fan who has been looking forward to making a show like this for many years. As noted on LeslieCharteris.com, she's a life-long Charteris fan who grew up enraptured with Simon Templar. Her brother Simon (not actually named after Simon Templar), from earliest memory, has always called himself 'ST' and signs all his personal letters with a stick symbol and a halo.
The 30-minute show is in production at the moment and will feature contributions from such notables as Roger Moore, Ian Ogilvy, Patricia Charteris, Dan Bodenheimer, Ian Dickerson, and Burl Barer. More details, including a broadcast date and time, will be posted here as and when we know them.
Book and Magazine Collector's June 2007 issue features, "Leslie Charteris: 100 Years of The Creator of The Saint."
The long 13-page article was written by Norman Wright, begins on page 36 of the issue. The article discusses Charteris' creation of the Saint and is printed in full color with some marvelous illustrations of Roger Moore, George Sanders, Vincent Price, Ian Ogilvy, Louis Hayward, magazine appearances, various dustjackets, and paperback editions.
A three-page annotated bibliography of the British editions is included, along with some current pricing guidelines within the UK; the highest price is, of course, for a British first Ward Lock edition of Meet The Tiger with dustjacket, at over £3000+ ($6000+)!
The issue went on sale May 10, 2007.
While thanking Book and Magazine Collector for doing a piece on The Saint and Leslie Charteris, Ian Dickerson has also posted a number of factual content errors to the news page of LeslieCharteris.com for you to enjoy -- see how many of them you found yourself!
Coming in at number six is The Saint's Volvo 1800 as driven by Roger Moore in the classic 1960s TV show, The Saint:
6. Volvo P1800 - The Saint Something fast, sporty and flashy was needed to match the style of the mysterious Simon Templar, first played by Roger Moore in the '60s. In the end, the Volvo P1800 was chosen over a similar Jaguar E-Type because of its sleek look and power (and, well, because Jaguar didn't want to supply one). Aside from a few cosmetic changes to the bumper, license plate and trim, the Volvo car remained unchanged during filming. Therefore, the car's elongated hood, rounded headlights and wide front grille remained unmistakable throughout the show's run.
The exotic P1800 contributed to the smoothness Moore's character exuded, as he was often seen zipping through city streets in the two-door speedster.
Cool fact: Roger Moore liked the P1800 so much that he bought one for himself.
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