Jon Hamm is returning to his lovable but dorky comedic roles, only this time he might be a murderer. Hamm is starring in the murder mystery Confess, Fletch based on Gregory McDonald’s character from his Fletch novels.
The movie follows Fletch, a former investigative reporter who has been laying low in Europe, though he quickly finds himself in the center of a murder investigation, though he plays it totally cool!
Despite being an ’80s character, Fletch has been updated for a modern audience, which means he will riff on social media and also find a dead body at an Airbnb. You know, millennial things. “Fletch comes to Boston to track down a bunch of stolen paintings, and the first day he’s there, he discovers a dead body in the Airbnb he’s staying in,” Director Greg Mottola explains. “The police think he’s the murderer, so he has to simultaneously find the stolen art and clear his name.”
The movie also stars Marcia Gay Harden, Lorenza Izzo, and Kyle MacLachlan. There is also a mini Mad Men reunion, as John Slattery plays Fletch’s friend and newspaper editor, with whom he has a love-hate relationship.
Fletch was previously portrayed by Chevy Chase in a 1985 adaptation of the popular book series, though you won’t see Chase and Hamm trying to outwit each other on screen. Mottola said that he wanted this to be a “new thing,” instead of a remake. “We reference the original, we pay homage to it, but we tried to really balance it halfway between a detective mystery and a comedy, possibly more than the original.” If anything, audiences will be awestruck by Hamm’s unshaven face they won’t even notice if the movie is good or not!
Confess, Fletch will be released in theaters and on-demand on September 16. Check out the trailer above.