The Saint Returns!

Dark Horizons points the way today to a very exciting story posted at the official website of Saint creator Leslie Charteris: The Saint is being revived, and James Purefoy is the man under the halo! The Rome star will portray Simon Templar in what's described as "a two-hour pilot film for a new series of The Saint" co-produced by Geoffrey Moore, son of the most famous screen Saint to date. (Dad Roger's production company was behind both his incarnation and the Seventies revival Return of the Saint starring Ian Ogilvy.) It's unclear whether this is a pilot for a British or American television series. It's set to start shooting in April of next year after Purefoy wraps the big-screen adaptation of Conan creator Robert E. Howard's Puritan adventurer Solomon Kane. Locations include Berlin and Australia.

This will be the fourth revival of The Saint since Ogilvy, following a series of British TV movies starring Simon Dutton (which are rumored to be coming next year from the UK's Network DVD), an American TV movie starring mustachioed Australian Andrew Clarke as a Lamborghini-driving Saint for the Magnum era, and of course the Val Kilmer theatrical misfire. Let's hope Purefoy's version fares better than those! Personally, I'm very excited to see Purefoy's take on Charteris' classic hero. He's a much better fit than Kilmer.