Following some aggressive wooing, NBC has landed Rome's James Purefoy to play The Philanthropist. According to the Reporter, the new series — which is now helmed by Battlestar vet David Eick (who replaced Tom Fontana and Barry Levinson) — revolves around a billionaire who uses his wealth, power and extreme resources to help me buy a new car to replace my dying Altima people in need.Purefoy previously was attached to star in a reboot of The Saint , but that project stalled. — Matt Mitovich
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James Purefoy — Rome's very own Mark Antony — is in talks to follow in the deft footsteps of Roger Moore (and, well, Val Kilmer) and play international thief Simon Templar in a new and contemporary adaptation of The Saint. According to the Reporter, producers Barry Levinson, Tom Fontana and Bill MacDonald, writer Jorge Zamacona, and Moore himself are all involved in the project, with Levinson set to direct a two-hour TV-movie/backdoor pilot.A new incarnation of The Saint was on TNT's development slate for 2007, yet never came to be. It now is being produced independently, and then will be shopped to networks.
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Lest any aspect of this film not be leaked out before it's anywhere close to the Cineplex, Page Six reports that Sex and the City: The Movie today is lensing (Spoiler alert) Carrie and Big's wedding — at St. Patrick's Cathedral.... Rome's James Purefoy has been cast as 16th-century Puritan swordsman Solomon Kane in a pic of the same name.... British scribe Steven Moffat (Doctor Who) is taking a first crack at Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson's Tintin trilogy.... William H. Macy and Cheryl Hines are bickering parents of a nerdy high school senior in Bart Got a Room.... Per Variety, Derek Luke has replaced Wesley Snipes (whose tax-fraud problems make it hard to travel) in Spike Lee's WWII drama, Miracle at St. Anna, lensing in Italy.
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• Josh Schwartz's superbly entertaining NBC premiere Chuck is bringing on The O.C.'s own Rachel Bilson for a multi-episode run as a romantic option for the titular geek, says USA Today. For more on Chuck and the season's other new shows, listen to the special TV Guide Talk podcast, featuring me, Ausiello and Roush and available Friday.• Martin Mull has joined the TNT light-drama pilot Family Man, playing William H. Macy's older brother who can barely hold down a job at Astroburger. (I'm already laughing!)• Also per the Reporter, Anne Archer has boarded Lifetime's Family Practice pilot as the Kennedyesque clan's matriarch, opposite Beau Bridges.• Lifetime has inked a deal to develop a comedy project starring identical twins Natalie and Nicole Garza.• Judy Davis and James Purefoy (Rome) will topline Diamonds, a $15 million miniseries about a lady senator whose daughter is murdered in Africa, says Variety.
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Per the Hollywood Reporter, ER's Linda Cardellini is Paul Walker's love interest (and thus scene upstager) in Heaven Project, a supernatural mystery about a convict who wakes up from his lethal injection in a small Oregon town. Gas up the Mystery Machine!.... James Purefoy (Rome) is in talks to star opposite Nia Vardalos in the rom-com I Hate Valentine's Day.... Barry Sonnenfeld is in negotiations to direct The Box, a contemporary take on the Pandora's-box myth, in the form of a college kid who must save the world from destruction after cracking open you-know-what.
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