Trivia / The Saint (1997)

• The Cast Showoff: The poetry written by Simon Templar's long-haired artist character, Thomas Moore, was actually written by Val Kilmer himself.
• Creator Backlash: In his autobiography, Roger Moore recalls meeting Val Kilmer at a Cannes Film Festival after the film came out:
  Kilmer: Boy, we really messed that up, didn't we?
  Moore: Oh, what do you mean?
  Kilmer: Well, after we finished filming, I read the stories. Those were some damn good stories.
  • Moore said that he didn't argue with Kilmer.
• Fake Nationality: Rade Šerbedžija, who plays Tretiak.
• Focus Group Ending: Originally Emma was going to die, but the test screening didn't like it.
• Saved from Development Hell: Plans for a Saint film date back to the 1980s, when Pierce Brosnan was reported to be a leading contender for the Templar role in a movie that was to be produced by Roger Moore. This project never materialized.
• Voice-Only Cameo: Roger Moore (who starred as Simon Templar in The Saint TV show in the 1960s) is the voice of the newsreader on the radio at the end of the film.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Kenneth Branagh, George Clooney, Kevin Costner, Johnny Depp, Daniel Day-Lewis, Brad Pitt, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Christian Slater all turned down the role of Simon Templar.
  • Phillip Noyce originally hoped to have Mel Gibson play the lead. Gibson was initially interested but then decided that he had spent too long away from home making Braveheart.
  • Early in the film's development, Sydney Pollack was first choice for director.
  • Paramount Pictures' attempt to make the film with Robert Evans as producer, Steven Zaillian as writer and Sydney Pollack as director. Ralph Fiennes was offered $1 million for the lead, but eventually passed. In a 1994 interview for Premiere magazine, Fiennes said the screenplay - racing fast cars, breaking into Swiss banks - was nothing he hadn't seen before.
  • Hugh Grant passed on the role after a meeting with Phillip Noyce because he didn't like the director's approach to the character.
  • Jonathan Hensleigh's draft cast Simon Templar as a mercenary hired by a billionaire Russian oil and gas tycoon to steal the secret of cold fusion from an eccentric but beautiful American scientist. The story would take place in Washington, D.C., Upstate New York, St. Petersburg, and Moscow. Setpieces included Dr. Russell skydiving while strapped into a wheelchair and a plane landing in Red Square. Darwin Mayflower described it as one of the top unproduced screenplays.

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