It’s been 35 years since Fletch, an adaptation of the
Gregory McDonald 1974 novel, was on the big screen and 31 years since its
sequel, Fletch Lives was released. After several attempts to reboot the
franchise over the last thirty years –one that includes writer/director Kevin Smith-
Miramax and actor Jon Hamm have announced they’re finally going to take another
stab at it.
Zev Borow will write the screenplay, which is based on the
second novel, 1976’s Confess, Fletch. Daytrippers, Superbad and Adventureland director
Greg Mottola will helm the film.
Still, there has been a long and typically Hollywood, road
to this reboot.
Universal Pictures released the first Fletch film in 1985,
starring Chevy Chase and directed by Michael Ritchie (Downhill Racer, The Candidate,
Semi-Tough, Bad News Bears). It grossed nearly $60 million on an $8 million
budget. However, it was not a straight take on the novel, and Ritchie allowed
Chase to ad-lib, but it was a critical and box office hit and allowed McDonald
to write a few more books (including a spin-off series of four books featuring
Flynn, who was introduced in second book). It took four years to get a sequel
out, Fletch Lives, which again starred Chase and helmed by Ritchie. However,
this 1989 film was an original story, and not based on any previous McDonald
material. While the $8 million budget remained, the sequel was generally
disliked by critics and made about $20 million less than the first film. Still,
Universal was interested in a third film, eventually agreeing in the early 1990s
to let Kevin Smith write and direct a follow up still starring Chase, but
nothing came to fruition.
By 2000, the rights to series were acquired by Miramax after
Universal Pictures option ran out. Again, Smith was on the forefront to helm a
film, with Chevy Chase still attached to play Fletch. However, a disagreement
between the two about the priorities on the sequel project led Smith to work on
adapting Fletch Won, a 1985 prequel McDonald wrote, and was set years before
the first book, thus featuring a younger version of Fletch that probably would’ve
starred frequent Smith collaborator Jason Lee or even Ben Affleck.
Interestingly, McDonald wrote three prequels to the original 1974 novel, with
Fletch Won being chronologically first, followed by Fletch, Too in 1986 and
Fletch and the Widow Bradley, which came out in 1981.
Smith would struggle getting the film greenlit, as former Miramax
studio head Harvey Weinstein was not convinced Jason Lee could launch a
successful film series. Over the years, Smith considered other actors to play Fletch,
such as Brad Pitt, Ben Affleck (again), Jimmy Fallon and even Scrubs star Zach
Braff. Eventually, Smith left the project in late 2005. After Smith dropped
out, Scrubs creator Bill Lawrence was hired to helm Fletch Won and a sequel,
but by 2007 it became obvious nothing was going to come out of it. While Braff
was never officially attached to the project, he eventually dropped out to work
on his own films and Lawrence soon followed.
The next attempt came in 2011, when Warner Brothers acquired
the rights. After several attempts by several writers to get a suitable script,
the WB put the IP on ice until 2013 when David List, who represented the Estate
of Gregory McDonald, stepped up with his own draft that even gotten former SNL
actor Jason Sudeikies interested in the title role. The studio signed off on
List’s script and the search began for a director, but by early 2015, the film
had moved to Relativity Studios after Warner Bros. passed on the project –then in
2018 Relativity Media had gone bankrupt.
Miramax, once again, has gotten the rights back and is now
setting up a potential new film series being spearheaded and starring Jon Hamm
as Fletch. Whether this latest attempt actually gets made will be the question.
Hamm is a bankable star, though mainly known for his dramatic TV work. However,
with the right material, he’s also a very good comedic actor –his work on Tina
Fey’s 30 Rock and Kimmy Schmidt proves that. But with so many fits and starts,
with an ongoing pandemic, a new Fletch
film is at least two years or more away.
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