Rege-Jean Page, the breakout actor from Netflix’s Shondaland series “Bridgerton” (in which he starred as a very handsome Duke of Hastings), has been cast in and set to executive produce Paramount’s reboot of “The Saint,” says The Hollywood Reporter. At the same time, playwright and actor Kwame Kwei-Armah (who also co-wrote “892.” an indie drama starring John Boyega). Producing “The Saint” is Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Brad Krevoy, as well as Robert Evans, who died in 2019 and will receive a posthumous credit.
An earlier version of “The Saint” once had Chris Pine attached with Dexter Fletcher set to direct, though that version is now shelved. It remains unknown if Fletcher will be carrying on in any capacity. Either way, this marks Page’s second project with Paramount after leaving “Bridgerton,” set to follow their upcoming “Dungeons & Dragons” feature film, directed by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley (who directed “Game Night,” rather appropriately) and which, ironically enough, also stars Chris Pine in the lead.
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As for “The Saint,” the film is based on the early 20th-century adventure novels by Leslie Charteris, a mysterious (and unfortunately, British) gentleman thief and sometimes amateur detective named Simon Templar, taking down various villains in a series of novels published between 1928 and 1963. The character was popular, portrayed in comics and serials and then film and television, by the likes of Vincent Price, Roger Moore in the 1960s British TV series of the same name, while Val Kilmer starred in Paramount’s 1997 update.