The Saint

From ComicMix

TNT drama series in development
They may know drama, but do they know genre?
TNT has a few new series in development that could be of interest to us all:

The Talisman – a six-hour limited series scheduled for summer 2008; a new project from DreamWorks Television and executive producer Steven Spielberg, based on the Stephen King and Peter Straub novel of the same title.

The Saint – a new one hour series based on the Leslie Chateris classic character – the famous Simon Templar. From executive producer William J. McDonald and producer Jorge Zamacona. The Saint was featured in movies dating back to the late 1930s (starring the great George Sanders) and the British television series from the
1960s starring Roger Moore. I can hear the theme song now...

The Company – a limited one-hour, six-part series debuting in August with Chris O'Donnell, Alfred Molina and Michael Keaton that looks at the CIA's activities during the Cold War, based on the bestselling novel by Robert Littell. Batman, Robin, and Doc Ock? Sure, why not.

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The Saint? Again?

Simon Templar debuted in 1928 and Leslie Charteris continued writing about him until1960 when he began using ghosts to help him. Movies, TV, comic books, radio, pulps, slicks over and over in various countries...This is one durable dude.

My favorite Charteris story dates back to when George Sanders was playing the Saint at the RKO B-movie unit. Charteris bombarded the suits with letters insisting that they try getting Cary Grant for the part. Grant was by then an enormous international star...and he was going to do a series of B movie? Doubtful.

When Sanders left his younger and more vulnerable brother Tom took over. Fifteen years later Tom was aboard a bus taking him to a body pile where indigent
alcoholics went to die. He didn't make it. He died en route.

The Saint may not be Tarzan or Superman or Sherlock Holmes...but he's certainly
a creation who adapts well to each generation.