[THE_EPISTLE] copyrights

[Ian Dickerson]

That's one way of putting it. The rights were sold in the very late
80s--effectively killing off a proposed second season of the Dutton Saint.
LC wrote an initial four page outline which was rapidly discarded by The
Paramount Powers That Be.

Off the top of my head I seem to recall that Jonathan Hensleigh's
script--which formed the basis for the final Kilmer film--was script
no.7(I've got them all somewhere at home so will check later).
Certainly the
early scripts did indeed feature a Saint and a Junior Saint--a concept which
LC had initiated and supported. Just a shame about the rest of the story.

Tom Cruise kinda barged in, took one look at what was then the current
script and went on to do Mission Impossible instead.

Kilmer contributed several ideas to what was the final film--primarily the
concept of the Saint's disguises. Wesley Strick was bought in to rewrite
Hensleigh's script and also incorporate KIlmer's ideas. Strick remains a fan
of the original Saint and did his best, but was fighting against a star and
a studio who thought they knew better.

Ian


On 26/04/06, Michael Orr <Writedumas at aol.com> wrote:
>
> Is it true as I once read that LC  had sold the rights to Paramount back
> in
> the 80s and wanted to do a Saint  (Roger) with a son (?) to carry on the
> story
> in a new movie version: I also  heard LC had written an outline and that
> for a
> while (God help us!) Tom Cruise  was being considered by the studio.
> Then with studio heads being  chopped, Sony etc from Japan, buying studios
> (for a while; they are mostly back  in US hands nows), it was simply put
> on the
> back burner: then Charteris died in  1993...
> ...and the people in charge wanted  Kilmer, and it was Val who gave them
> the
> scenario he liked and they ran with it  (which shows Kilmer, whom I
> usually
> like, knew very llittle about the Saint  background, or did not respect
> the
> author and his stories enough, which I hope  is not the truth).
> Comments, Ian?
> Michael
> (Toronto)
>
> Ph: (416)  481-2477
> Fax: (416) 481-3577
> E-mail:  Writedumas at aol.com
>