Regé-Jean Page, who broke out in a big way in the first season of Netflix’s steamy romantic period drama Bridgerton, has locked down another movie role. Page will play the title character in Paramount’s The Saint reboot film, which is loosely based on a 1920s book series that sparked a 1960s TV series and a 1997 Val Kilmer movie about a master of disguise who serves as a modern day Robin Hood figure, robbing the rich and redistributing wealth to those in need.
Deadline reports that Regé-Jean Page will both star in and executive produce The Saint, which has Lorenzo Di Bonaventura (Transformers, G.I. Joe), Brad Krevoy (Dumb and Dumber, The Princess Switch), Mark Vahradian (Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit), and the legendary Robert Evans (Chinatown, Marathon Man) on board as producers. Evans died in 2019, but he will receiving a producer credit anyway.
The Saint Gets an Overhaul
Page is taking over the role from Chris Pine (Wonder Woman), who took it over from Chris Pratt (Guardians of the Galaxy). It’s unclear whether Dexter Fletcher, the filmmaker behind Rocketman and Eddie the Eagle, is still attached to direct this movie, but it appears that the story has been significantly reworked. Seth Grahame-Smith (The LEGO Batman Movie, Dark Shadows) was credited with writing a previous version of the screenplay, but his name is no longer attached to this project. Instead, the script is being written by Kwame Kwei-Armah, an actor-turned-writer who has earned plaudits as as a playwright and serves as the artistic director of London’s famed Young Vic theatre, and Deadline says “this will be a completely new take that reimagines the character and world around him.”
Previous iterations of The Saint, which originated in a series of books by author Leslie Charteris, centered on a character named Simon Templar, who was a Robin Hood-type figure who operated as a thief and a con man. Over the years, Templar evolved into a WWII secret agent and later became more of an all-purpose adventurer, adapting to stay relevant with the times.
I’m not sure what this “completely new take” will entail, but Page has quickly established himself as a charismatic presence in the eyes of Hollywood, so I’m excited to see him continue to mold his on-screen persona in interesting ways, and playing a literal master of disguise (if that element of the character remains in place) seems like a great way to transition from a rom-com heartthrob into a mainstream blockbuster star.
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