Jon Hamm has officially joined the very long list of actors who’ve been trying to bring back Fletch.
In a collaboration with Superbad director Greg Mottola and Miramax, Hamm will star and produce in a modern-day update of the detective movies made famous by Chevy Chase in the 1980s. Like the Chase films, Hamm and Mottola will pull from the Fletch novels by author Greg McDonald, but this time around, they’ll be jumping right into the second book Confess, Fletch. Via Deadline:
In a mysterious chain of wild events, Fletch finds himself in the middle of multiple murders — one of which pins him as a prime suspect. While on a quest to prove his innocence, Fletch is tasked with finding his fiancée’s stolen art collection, the only inheritance she’s acquired after her father goes missing and is presumed dead. Zev Borow, consulting producer of the Lethal Weapon TV series, will be penning the feature adaptation.
Much like the revolving door of actors who’ve tried to get a new adaptation of The Crow off the ground, Fletch has seen numerous talent attached to a reboot over the decades. Prior to Hamm landing the role, Jason Sudeikis almost starred in a “gritty reboot” of the detective series that was announced back in 2014, but never materialized. Den of Geek details a laundry list of other hopefuls, including Ryan Reynolds, Ellen DeGeneres, Dave Chappelle, John Krasinski, Ryan Reynolds, Jimmy Fallon, Justin Long, and Chris Tucker.
But, wait, there’s more! At one point, Scrubs creator Bill Lawrence was working on a Fletch film that would’ve starred Zach Braff or Joshua Jackson, and Kevin Smith came very close to adapting Son of Fletch with Jason Lee. However, Smith eventually had to swap out Lee for Ben Affleck, but by that point, apparent creative differences had derailed the project.
In short, best of luck, Jon Hamm.
(Via Deadline, Den of Geek)