If you've never seen the 1997 movie The Saint starring Val Kilmer, you are in for a treat. A perfect mash-up of a 90s action-thriller and so-bad-its-good moviemaking, Kilmer played Simon Templar, aka The Saint, who's a thief and criminal for hire but also wears some really laughable disguises. The film is based on a 1920s book series of the same name by Leslie Charteris, but was notably adapted into a 1960s TV series starring Roger Moore.

We reported back in February that Rocketman helmer Dexter Fletcher was on board to direct and that Chris Pratt had been circling the lead role before passing. Now Variety reports that Chris Pine is set to star in the film for Paramount. Pine is a go-to for the studio having lead not only the Star Trek franchise but also playing the lead in the reboot Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, which never really took off, but now exists as an Amazon series starring John Krasinski. However, Paramount feels like The Saint could be the start of a long-running film franchise, which I'm sure is what the producers of the Val Kilmer movie thought as well. Perhaps it will go better for Pine since the notion of a globetrotting criminal hero certainly has potential although I'd argue that as an IP, The Saint doesn't hold much cultural cache these days.

Because of COVID-19, it's unknown when The Saint could possibly go into production, but Variety seems confident that this would be Fletcher's next project even before Sherlock Holmes 3, which also has Fletcher attached. It's worth noting that scheduling will be a major headache for studios and talent as everyone tries to work out what now has first position post-shutdown.

Pine will next be seen as Steve Trevor in Wonder Woman 1984, which is currently set to open on August 14th. He recently wrapped filming on Violence of Action for director Tarik Selah.