Fletch lives...again

As indicated in a previous posting, I am a fan of the first Fletch film starring Chevy Chase. If you are not aware of the film, it is from 1985 and is based on the first novel of the same name by Gregory McDonald.

The story from both the book and movie is about a newspaper reporter named Irwin Fletcher who is an investigative reporter who writes under the name Jane Doe. While writing stories on the drug trade he meets up with a man named Alan Stanwyck who asks Fletch to kill him in order to provide money for his family.

The rest of the story in the film varies slightly from the book but still centres on Fletch's ability to have fake ID and fake costumes in order to get information.

There was a sequel four years later called Fletch Lives which starred Chase and ex-Mrs. Springsteen Julianne Phillips. It wasn't directly related to any of McDonald's novels and did not have the same appeal as the original.

Top 5 Chevy Chase films
1. Fletch
2. Christmas Vacation
3. Caddyshack
4. Funny Farm
5. Memoirs Of An Invisible Man

Kevin Smith of Clerks fame had been rumoured for years to be re-starting the Fletch franchise starring Jason Lee. That has since fizzled, however, news this week is that Scrubs producer Bill Lawrence will be writing and directing an adaptation of the Fletch novel Fletch Won which deals with a younger Irwin Fletcher and how he began as a reporter. It is to star Scrubs star Zach Braff.

Braff himself lends credence to this on his own website where he talks about this news. As he says about the original Fletch movie, "For those of you who've never seen it, go check out Chevy Chase in "Fletch". It is a classic; you will laugh till your nipples chafe against your shirt."