27 July 2006

Fletch is coming back to the silver screen

Chevy Chase was never great at picking his film roles. Beyond his first feature, Foul Play, his only other good films was co-starring roll in Caddyshack and the first Vacation film. But there was two other films he did, little seen these days, but I liked them. In 1985, he starred as Fletch, the scrappy invesitgative reporter in the novels of the great Gregory McDonald. Brought to the big screen by the late director Michael Ritchie, Chase was at his best as the wise cracking, disguise loving LA reporter out to expose a drug ring. The 1989 sequel, Fletch Lives, was not that great, but still showcased Chase's best talent: slapstick and nonsequtior humor and many, many mocking wise-cracks.
Since then, the film series has remaind in limbo, but it has been announced that Bill Lawrence, creator of one my favorite shows, the under appreciated Scrubs, has signed on with the Weinstein Co. to write and direct a new film, Fletch Won.
While no casting has been announced, Lawrence seems to want only one person to play the irreverant reporter/slueth: Zach Braff, the star of Scrubs. Lawrence told Reuters that Braff "is perfect for the role. I'm going to use all my pull trying to make him do it." Lawrence aims to give this entry, an origin tale based on 1985's Fletch Won, more edge, likening it to Beverly Hills Cop, where there was a real sense of jeopardy."

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