James Purefoy turned his back on The Saint remake

Actor James Purefoy has turned down the chance to take on Sir Roger Moore's supercool role in a remake of The Saint.

The Resident Evil star was approached to take the lead in a reboot of the hugely successful '60 TV series, which starred the Bond legend as a thief.

However, Purefoy decided to snub the part after disagreeing with the direction the update was taking.

He says, "In the end they weren't going to do the kind of Saint I wanted to make. We had a great script that was cool, classy and dead sexy. Now I think it's going to be more like (1980s David Hasselhoff show) Knight Rider - and I didn't want to do that."