Stirred by long-dormant feelings, Templar desperately fights to protect Emma while struggling to master the one identity he cannot assume with ease -- himself.

Director Phillip Noyce first discovered "The Saint" at the age of eight. A fan of the original novels written by Leslie Charteris, Noyce went on to see the Roger Moore television series then showing in his native Australia. Years later, when producer Robert Evans brought THE SAINT to Paramount, Noyce was given the opportunity to bring a '90s Simon Templar to the big screen. "I wanted to portray how a sinner becomes a saint," says Noyce, "and how someone is redeemed."

For inspiration, Noyce went back to the Leslie Charteris novels. "I realized what we had to do in order to reinvent the Simon Templar character was to tell the story that had never been told -- how Simon Templar becomes a saint," Noyce explains. "In his hundreds of stories, the creator of "The Saint," Leslie Charteris, had never told us about the genesis of the character."

Noyce enlisted screenwriter Jonathan Hensleigh ("Die Hard With a Vengeance") to create a darker Simon Templar. According to Noyce, "we decided Templar's story should begin in an orphanage in Hong Kong where, as a child, he learns all the tricks that he is going to use when he is an adult and how he uses these to survive. He's a man who, like a child, retreats from the brutal reality around him by using disguises which are really an escape, a mask hiding the real man."

For the role of Simon Templar, director Noyce chose Val Kilmer. "We didn't need just another action hero; we needed a real actor," says Noyce. "Val Kilmer was the only one who had the true acting ability to play all the diverse parts that Simon Templar has to play. Val has never been used in this way -- and I think people are going to be quite surprised with what he comes up with in this movie."

To Val Kilmer, "the excitement of this project is creating a series and an introduction to this character. Templar has a morality and a code and, like many professional thieves, has no interest in harming people or killing them. He is not a bad man; he just grew up in the illegal world and that's what he does for a living."

In THE SAINT, Kilmer actually plays over a dozen characters donning Templar's many disguises. Describing how Templar's disguises evolved, Kilmer says: "We started off just goofing around with ideas, seeing how far we could go. It was a lot of fun. At least once a week I'd come on set as someone else." According to producer Mace Neufeld, "Val has been meticulous in developing his disguises. He developed them through body language, attitude, and dialect. His desire for authenticity and accuracy to perfect these disguises made him work very hard in the preparation."

To play opposite Kilmer in the role of scientist Emma Russell, Noyce needed an actress who would be believable as a nuclear scientist. "She has to radiate intelligence," says Noyce. "I have always admired Elisabeth Shue's work and as soon as I saw her in 'Leaving Las Vegas,' I knew I had found my Emma."

For Academy Award® nominee Shue, participating in THE SAINT was "a big adventure. I was definitely attracted to the 'big' nature of this movie," she says: "I don't think I have ever done a film this big. Also, the main reason for doing this movie was to work with Val."

Shue's character, Emma Russell, represented a change from characters she has recently portrayed. "It was very freeing to play someone who was free of deep pain and torture," Shue explains. "I was attracted to Emma most of all by her innocence, her spirit, her wonderment. Emma is somebody who has lived in an isolated world." In Shue's view, Simon Templar "represented all that Emma didn't know, and all that she needed to experience in her life."

Much of THE SAINT takes place in contemporary Russia, and director Noyce looked for Russian and Eastern European actors who would bring authenticity to their roles. "We wanted actors that would startle the audience so that they could really believe in the characters," says Noyce. "In Russia, we came up with some fantastic actors."

Valery Nikolaev plays the key role of Ilya, the violent and erratic son of industrialist Tretiak. To Nikolaev, Ilya is -- like Simon Templar, in a way -- a man driven by his search for his own identity. "Ilya is the son of Ivan Tretiak, a very powerful man," says Nikolaev. "Ilya wants to be more powerful and bigger than his father. He knows that so long as his father is at the top he will always be second." In addition, Russian actress Irina Apeximova plays Frankie, a young Russian woman who befriends Templar.

Rade Serbedzija, a Croatian actor, was cast as Ivan Tretiak, Ilya's father and the would-be dictator of Russia. Serbedzija recalls how the role of Tretiak evolved. Phillip Noyce, he says, had this wonderful idea to make him like a Rasputin character. Tretiak was formerly an ordinary Russian government politician, but when times change in Russia he himself changes. He takes on this new image like Rasputin and becomes obsessed by the need for power and domination. In an interesting casting twist, Rade Serbedzija's daughter, Lucija, also appears in THE SAINT. She plays the part of Sofiya, a teenaged Russian girl who hides Templar and Emma from Tretiak's agents.

            Directed by: 
                          Phillip Noyce 
            Produced by: 
                          Paul Hitchcock 
                          William MacDonald 
                          Mace Neufeld 
            Screenplay by: 
                          Jonathan Hensleigh
                          Wesley Strick 
            Cast: 
                          Val Kilmer 
                                          as Simon Templar 
                          Elisabeth Shue 
                                          as Emma Russell 
                          Rade Serbedzija 
                                          as Ivan Tretiak 
                          Irina Apeximova 
                                          as Frankie 
                          Valeri Nikolayev 
                                          as Ilya 
                          Lucija Serbedzija 
                                          as Sofiya