Report: Paramount Eyes Chris Pine To Reboot ‘The Saint’ As They Await Noah Hawley’s Star Trek Script

Today, the Hollywood trades are reporting that Star Trek actor Chris Pine is in talks to take on another franchise for Paramount Pictures, with one report holding out hope that he may still have a future in the final frontier.

Pine in talks for The Saint

Variety had an exclusive scoop (later confirmed by The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline) that Chris Pine was in negotiations with Paramount Pictures to take on the lead role of Simon Templar in a reboot of The Saint. The modern Robin Hood-like character originated in a series of books published in the early 20th century and was popularized on television in the 1960s series  starring Roger Moore. A number of actors have played the character in TV movies and feature films, with the latest being Val Kilmer in the 1997 film The Saint.

This latest iteration of The Saint is being helmed by Dexter Fletcher (Rocketman) with a script by Seth Grahame-Smith (The Lego Batman Movie).

Paramount awaits Hawley’s Star Trek script

This will be the third Paramount franchise that Pine would step in to lead, after playing Captain James T. Kirk in three Star Trek features and being the fourth actor to take on the role of Jack Ryan, in the 2014 film Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit. The Variety report also included this note of Pine’s history with Paramount:

Paramount and Pine have had strong ties for many years. Their relationship goes back to 2009 when the studio hired him to play Captain Kirk in the latest “Star Trek” franchise, launching his career as a leading man in the process. While the fourth “Star Trek” film is still being developed, the studio saw “The Saint” as the perfect role for Pine as they wait for that script to be finished.

Variety’s exclusive scoop seems to indicate that Chris Pine could be reprising his role in the next Star Trek, which is being developed by Noah Hawley. Pine’s involvement would be significant, as his and Chris Hemsworth’s salary negotiations in 2018 ended up scuttling the Star Trek 4 project that was to be helmed by S.J. Clarkson with a script by Patrick McKay and J.D. Payne.

Chris Pine as Kirk with Anton Yelchin as Chekov and John Cho as Sulu in Star Trek Beyond

Pine’s involvement would also be significant given that evidence so far has pointed to Hawley’s Star Trek being something different. In January, Hawley indicated he is not working on a sequel to 2016’s Star Trek Beyond, saying “To call it Star Trek IV is kind of a misnomer. I have my own take on the franchise as a lifelong fan.” Either Variety knows something about Pine’s involvement in Hawley’s Trek, or they haven’t kept up on the latest Trek news.

Last month, Pine’s co-star Simon Pegg (Scotty) talked to Collider about the Hawley Trek project, saying, “I don’t know anything about it. I’m pretty sure we’re not involved.” But in late March, actor Zachary Quinto (Spock) seemed to hold out some hope that there was a future for Kelvin timeline, telling Star Talk Radio:

I feel [creating the Kelvin timeline] reset the clock so to speak and it gave us a new point of departure and a springboard into a whole landscape of stories. Part of the joy of Star Trek is the infinite joy of storytelling. And so, I grateful to be part of that because we weren’t hindered by anything that happened before and it was a powerful new direction it allowed us to go in. We will see where it takes us from here.

Regardless, it looks like Chris Pine’s next Paramount franchise job will be playing Simon Templar. Pine will next be seen in Wonder Woman 1984, coming out in August. He has also completed filming on the action film Violence of Action and is set to play Walter Cronkite in Newsflash, which could go into production this year. As for Noah Hawley, he is still awaiting the end of the coronavirus lockdown so he can return to finish production on the next season of Fargo.

As of this summer, it will be four years since the release of the last Star Trek film. The longest time gap in the thirteen-film franchise was the 6 1/2  years between Star Trek: Nemesis and J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek in 2009. The way things have been going, don’t be surprised if the next Star Trek film matches or even breaks that record.

Chris Pine at TNT red carpet in 2019


Keep up with all news regarding upcoming Star Trek films at TrekMovie.com.

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I can wait. The cast need to be “The Motion Picture” or “The Wrath of Khan” age. And get the Kelvin version of those classic TWOK red uniforms.

If the film is great when it arrives the wait will be meaningless.

People including Simon Pegg has stated they don’t think the Hawley script is with the Kelvin cast but new characters entirely. They may still show up, but I’m really not holding my breath.

It’ll be a first – a very GOOD first – to have a whole new main crew make their debut in the movies. I’m excited at the prospect of a Hawley film. Yes, maybe a cameo ( whether set in the Kelvin Universe or not ), by Scotty, Spock, etc. could be intriguing.

Paramount is franchise movie studio. IMO, they take zero risks. With a return of full attendance at cineplexes in doubt? Paramount will stick with the Kelvin cast. Any new crew will end up at CBS All Access.
I’m happy that new movies are going straight to release on streaming platforms.
I’ve a 75″ TV, a kick ass sound system and my own popcorn…

I hear you but in all honesty I think Paramount might think its a risk to bring them back after such a long wait and how badly Beyond did.

And they tried that with the last Terminator film. Even though Genisys bombed (but still did better than Beyond) they rolled the dice with Dark Fate, kept Arnold and brought back Cameron and Linda Hamilton to write and star in it and it managed to do even worse. But the Terminator concept just feels played out at this point since you can only do so much with it it seems.

You could be right but I think they are moving on. And you can always just throw in a few big stars or new upcomers to attract people.

My guess (and it is pure speculation) is that if Paramount can get Hawley, Pine and Co to do a movie for substantially less than the previous 3 cost then they may stick with Pine and Co. The wait doesn’t really matter. If it’s not possible to cut costs with this group of actors they will try something else.

No, because Pine and Zaldana are too expensive now.

I would like one last film with the Kelvin film to wrap things up, but then there is nothing wrong with leaving how it ended as well and as a trilogy.

I hope if its not them though that they go another way entirely.

They’ve already had some dressy outfits.

Would love the TWOK look, but must be new stories

Movie era uniforms, make the bridge look more like the 1701 in Discovery.
Nice! Ignore Into Darkness as well (no magic blood) as Beyond did.

That’s cool news! You know what would’ve been cooler news? That Pine was signed up for the next Star Trek film. I’m not going to over think it, but it’s cool both sides are willing to make other movies together so the bridges haven’t been completely burnt at least.

Tiger2 Chris Pine is a amazing actor. I really enjoyed his portrayal of Kirk from the Kelvin timeline films. I would love to see him again on Star Trek.

Picard is my favorite Star Trek captain and Kirk is second place. Kirk was around women too much for my taste lol.

I hope so too. There are only about five movie studios left, though, so if makes sense Pine would do *something* with Paramount. 😀

If you’re thinking big blockbusters you might be right about the number of studios. However, there are still a lot of smaller players. Yet, unless Pine wants to go the indie route he should probably try to maintain a good relationship with the big studios.

Chris Pine should come back for another Star Trek film. He doesn’t have to be Kirk again. Chris Pine can play any character he wants.

I’m amazed the guy gets cast in as much as he does, he only rarely seems to have the goods (most of BEYOND was okay though.) He’s downright embarrassing when squaring off with ‘Khan’ in the brig in ID, like seeing a highschooler trying to act with professionals.

It could be they are dealing on a basis that Pine will get paid for doing one Par film, it being either SAINT first, or TREK in reserve if SAINT falls apart. That would be a good way for the studio to keep their options open w/o breaking open the incredible shrinking piggy bank at Paramount.

That scene in the brig was cringeworthy for sure. But a lot of that I chalk up to the bad writing of the scene and JJ letting Pine do what he did. IMHO a better script and a more competent director would never have let that scene play like it did.

Zachary Quinto as Kirk.

Pine as Spock.

Nothing else changes.

He can play Janice Rand….

What the… why don’t the Kelvin movies have Janice Rand in them?!?! Does she make a cameo that I can’t remember??
I was kind of upset they only refer to Chapel.. like why wouldn’t you put them in??
Putting Carol Marcus in was the best part of Into Darkness in retrospect, totally think she should have been in Beyond.

the variety article does not state ST4 will be the Noah Hawley script.. maybe its the Tarantino script

QT Trek is very dead.

Why would they hire ANOTHER director to write his own film if they plan to use the Tarantino script?

I think people have to face reality, that project is most likely dead. And I don’t think Paramount was as keen as making an R rated Star Trek movie. I would love the idea personally but after hearing so many fans balk at Discovery and Picard because they drop F bombs and graphic violence I don’t know if a movie version will be more accepted and with a much bigger risk involved.

That is some insanely wrong fashion statement down at the bottom. My god, Fassbender, Connery, Eric Braeden and Clive Owen couldn’t even make that look good.

That’s a very dapper outfit, no?

He’s playing Cronkite? I like the guy, but good heavens… no.
The Saint is a much better fit. Kilmer was entirely wrong for the part in ’97.

I Liked Kilmer’s Saint Film.

Watch the show starring Roger Moore. Kilmer was not Simon Templar at all.

In many ways I felt Kilmer’s portrayal was closer to the early books. Definitely, had more mystery.

On the other hand, I always disliked Roger Moore in just about anything, especially the Bond franchise. He seems to be a certain Brit archetype that gets right up my nose. And this is from someone with an English parent and family that ensured that I was exposed to a wide range of British culture and entertainment.

I do think that Pine might be able to cut a happy medium and be accessible to the American audience.

I think Chris Pine would make a great Simon Templar, but when I looked up the writer and director for this planned reboot, I started having doubts about this project.

The planned director, Dexter Fletcher, is most notable for directing Rocketman, the Elton John biopic; not sure if that translates to a good director for what should be a spy thriller in the vein of Mission: Impossible or the 007 films.

What’s more concerning is that the writer, Seth Grahame-Smith, is best known for The Lego Batman Movie (!) and Abraham Lincoln – Vampire Hunter (!!!). Yeah…because when I think “action-packed spy movie”, I think the guy who wrote The Lego Batman Movie.

Then again, I never would have thought that Brad Bird, the guy who directed The Incredibles or Ratatouille would’ve done as good a job directing Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol as he ended up doing. So, who knows?

Fletcher is also helming the next Sherlock Holmes film, which will still be in the action vein of the other Guy Ritchie films.

No thanks. This is someone’s Trek, not mine though.

Your Trek is probably only TNG and Voyager I imagine.

Imagine away.

Hard Pass for me on imagining any of that. I can’t even watch it on TV.

Hopefully this reboot will work out better than the Jack Ryan one did. That was a dud (but not because of Chris Pine).

That was a ghastly, overt piece of jingoistic propaganda if ever I saw one – and it STILL flopped, lol.

But it was still better than Ben Affleck’s Jack Ryan movie. P.U.!

The best by far was Red October. One of the very few times where I liked the movie better than the book. Also, Alec Baldwin managed to NOT come across as a smug A-hole. That often bubbles out of him in nearly every role he plays. No matter what kind of character he plays.

They should merge Debt of Honor and Bear and the Tiger. China purposely releases a virus to cripple the economy and the US responds… uh, ten years from now when this is long forgotten that can have some entertainment value. National Security Advisor Jack Ryan has to figure it out, ends up President.
Put in a carrier on carrier battle and lots of submarine action.

Red October is still a favourite. Totally agree ML31.

Now if only a Trek film could be modeled on that. Before the supernova, there was such an opportunity to make a Red October kind of film with the a Romulan military leader wanting out. The cat and mouse submarine tension was a perfect fit.

TNG played a bit with that kind of storyline, but only Face of the Enemy attempted that kind of suspense.

Ok….sudden wild thought…what if Troi were to come out of retirement to go undercover to seek out and neutralize the last of the Zhat
Vash? Or, what about Laris and Troi as a team? I’d watch 6 episodes of that.

I’m still mystified that there has never been a special edition, director’s cut, or ANYTHING for “Hunt for Red October”.

They got it right already the first time, you don’t need to scrape the editor’s dustbin to find Gates McFadden’s lost dialog.

That’s coming from somebody who was disappointed with the movie at first viewing too (I think there were better choices to be made when adapting the novel, and some of that may be due to casting Connery rather than Klaus Maria Brandauer, who you’d really believe might smoke the whole world on a whim.) But starting with my first home viewing on laserdisc, I lightened up and now accept it is a very solid fun flick that I have on at least annual rewatch.

Plus, re: special features … if THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR is any indication, commentaries from McTiernan are about as bad as commentaries get. You’d figure somebody who was skillful enough to do PREDATOR, OCTOBER, CROWN and LAST ACTION HERO (yeah, I actually like that, I just hate the kid and wish they’d shaved 15 min off the runtime) could at least get a prepared text that conveyed good info, but I heard no evidence of that based on CROWN.

“I would have liked to have seen Montana.” Red October, great film.

And Dr. Crusher has a line in it!

Spacedock had a good video where they mentionedthree movies every sci-fi writer should have to watch . The Hunt for Red October, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World and The Wrath of Khan. Right on.

It’s a good move for Pine, looks like he won’t be hurting for work for quite a while. As far as the happy talk goes for another Trek feature, this development is another tip off to not hold your breath. This cast is working, Paramount is pinching the pennies, and they seem pretty happy taking their time reviewing concepts. It’s going to be lots of years before Trek hits the big screen again.

Wow, exciting news for a subsection of British boomers. No one else gives a flying fig about The Saint property. Smells like another Para-flop. Maybe should send it straight to AllViacomPlusXL streaming. That plus Short Trex is how you build synergy.

This new Saint will probably flop like Pine’s Jack Ryan movie. Not to mention every version of the ‘The Saint’ property after Ian Ogilvy’s ‘THE RETURN OF THE SAINT’ has failed.

I’d rather see the Kelvin crew return in a TMP era TREK movie.

Is the Roger Moore television series version of the Saint worth watching?

mainly if you’re a fan of actors who appeared on THE PRISONER, DANGERMAN and other British series of that era. I’ve never actually gotten through a whole ep, though I’ve tried a couple of times nearly every decade since the 70s. Roger Moore is not my cup of tea — more, as Bond describes that beverage in Ian Fleming’s GOLDFINGER, ‘a cup of mud.’ (He did do an utterly hilarious Clouseau impression in one of the post-Peter Sellers PANTHER abominations, so that’s one feather in his cap I won’t begrudge him.)

theres also quite a few Bond actors in the series and Moore himself is basically playing a young Bond (or was playing an older Simon Templar when he was Bond). it could almost be like Roger Moore Bonds early years.

theres also quite a few Bond actors in the series and Moore himself is basically playing a young Bond (or was playing an older Simon Templar when he was Bond). it could almost be like the Roger Moore Bonds early years pre MI6. but as you say its not easy getting through an episode (as most 60s series aren’t easy watching now – except Star Trek of course and some Twilight Zones and Invaders)

Bond and Templar should be very different based on the books.

What they both have in common is the lack of healthy attachments from childhood that MI6 seemed to look for in recruiting agents. But that doesn’t mean they are temperamentally close or have similar motivations.

It was typical 1960s “Style over Substance” programming. The problem with the Kilmer movie is they tried to give it substance but it had no style at all.

I couldn’t say. But I WILL say that only Roger Moore and Ian Ogilvy stand up in the “canon” of SAINTS. Ogilvy particularly should be a much, much bigger star internationally. He could – and SHOULD – have been BOND.

Hell. Yes.

Did anyone ever play the old TOS game “The Rebel Universe”? I wonder if you could use that as the story to make it COVID-19 related.
Federation outposts coreward get overrun with warp capable probes loaded with a nanoprobe virus. Starfleet decides to quarantine the area unclear of what, where, when. Unknown to the public Starfleet has determined that the probes ranges are expanding moving in the direction of the Federation.
Spock analyzes the results and with Kirk and McCoy they see it misses homeworlds and worlds with primitive non-interstellar species.
The Enterprise is deployed to the unexplored quarantine zone which no other starship is allowed to enter. Who, where, why? Have around a black hole an old race trying to return the galaxy to “pureness” by ending interstellar colonization and forcing everyone to play holodeck. Within the quarantine zone, the big E finds other races trapped on their homeworlds. Can they work together to liberate the galaxy?

He would make a great Simon Templar. I wish he’d try his hand back as Jack Ryan too. I thought he was great in it but the story wasn’t great and dare I say it should have had a different director.

Pine is wrong for the part of Simon Templar. The Saint is explicitly British. Cast a British actor in the role. You wouldn’t cast an American as James Bond, would you?

Why not? We got a Brit playing Superman and Batman. An American played Sherlock Holmes.

Everything Pine starred in Apart from Kelvin Trek was a flop. Not the actors fault but it is what it is. Wonder Women is a co-starring role so you cannot really count that!

I think this is just Paramount changing his Beyond deal for ST4 incase they do not go ahead with another Trek movie they get him cheap to play Simon Templar.

I can see Pine as a younger John Henry Fernack. From The Saint in New York. That would be an interesting way to reintroduce the Saint to modern audiences…through Fernack’s eyes.

I’m not sure who to recommend as the next Templar.

The casting of Eliza Dushku as Patricia Holm in that Adam Rayner-starring pilot movie from a few years ago might be revisited, if she’s still interested.

Jude Law, when he was younger, would have been a good choice.

Try as they might they just can’t seem to get Pine onto the A list. Certainly not for a lack of effort. All I can assume is a shortfall of talent. That said he was okay in Beyond but the Kirk magnetism that Shat brought to the role is still not there.
I doubt it ever will be.
He’s a jobbing actor that’s been cursed with movie star looks.

Yea, because we all now how the huge group of The Saint fans worldwide has been waiting decades for this. /s