Paramount Pictures is in early negotiations with Hollywood actor Chris Pratt to star in a movie reboot of The Saint, two decades after actor Val Kilmers thriller and 50 years after actor Roger Moores TV series.
Pratt's deal is not closed. He became a worldwide star after headlining Disney-Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy movies and Avengers: Infinity War and its upcoming sequel in 2019, reports variety.com.
He also starred in Passengers with Jennifer Lawrence, and long-running sitcom Parks and Recreation.
The studio secured a deal for book series rights in 2016 and set up a producing deal with producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura with the goal of starting an action franchise.
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The Saint is based on Leslie Charteris' book series, which follow the debonair Simon Templar character first introduced in the 1928 novel Meet the Tiger, followed by Enter the Saint in 1930.
Templar stole from corrupt politicians and warmongers, leaving a calling card of a stick figure with a halo.
George Sanders starred in half a dozen films as The Saint in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Prior to his days portraying James Bond, Moore starred in a popular long-running British TV series during the 1960s.
The 1997 movie The Saint starred Kilmer and Elisabeth Shue, and was directed by Phillip Noyce from a script by Jonathan Hensleigh and Wesley Strick.
The film, which explored the title character dealing with the underworld of international industrial theft, was produced by Evans, David Brown, William MacDonald and Mace Neufeld.
