Fletch (film)
Encyclopedia
Fletch is a 1985 comedy film
about a wisecracking investigative newspaper reporter, Irwin M. Fletcher (Chevy Chase
), who writes under the name of Jane Doe. The film was based on the popular Gregory Mcdonald
novels
, the screenplay was written by Andrew Bergman
and it was directed by Michael Ritchie
.
In the 1970s, Burt Reynolds
and Mick Jagger
were considered to portray Fletch on the big screen but these suggestions were rejected by Mcdonald. The author agreed to the casting of Chevy Chase despite never seeing the comedian in anything. Chase reportedly enjoyed the role because it allowed him to play several different characters and work with props. In a 2004 interview with Entertainment Weekly
, Chase confirmed this was his favorite role.
Fletch earned several positive reviews from critics and performed well at the box office and home video. It has since developed a cult following
and was followed by a 1989 sequel, Fletch Lives
. A prequel, Fletch Won, has been in talks for more than a decade.
). Stanwyk says he wants Fletch to murder him because he has inoperable cancer; this way his family will receive his life insurance. Unaware that Fletch is actually an undercover reporter, Stanwyk thinks he would be the perfect man for the job, as he appears to be a person of no consequence, who can thus simply disappear after the shooting without any suspicions being raised. Fletch agrees to kill Stanwyk when offered a considerable sum of money, but is suspicious of Stanwyk's motives. Fletch starts to dig, and uncovers a story much greater than his exposé of small-time drug dealers. As he uncovers the lurid truth about Stanwyk, he also discovers that a sinister police chief (Joe Don Baker
) is behind the drug trafficking on Los Angeles
' beaches.
's novel was very successful and soon Hollywood came calling. His Fletch books were optioned around the mid to late 1970s but the author had retained the right of approving the actor cast to play Fletch. He rejected the likes of Burt Reynolds
and Mick Jagger
. When the studio mentioned Chevy Chase as Fletch, Mcdonald (even though he had never really seen Chase in anything) agreed. Years before, Chase's manager recommended Mcdonald's books to him but he was not interested at the time. When an old friend and producer Alan Greisman and screenwriter Andrew Bergman
got involved, Chase agreed to do it. Mcdonald sent Chase a telegram saying, "I am delighted to abdicate the role of Fletch to you". Bergman was hired to adapt Mcdonald's book into screenplay form. Bergman remembers that he wrote the screenplay "very fast – I did the first draft in four weeks ... Then there was a certain amount of improv, and something that we used to call dial-a-joke". Mcdonald read the script and was angry by how far it strayed from his book. He wrote to the studio and listed his many objections to the screenplay. Director Michael Ritchie invited Mcdonald to the set of the film and took him out to dinner where, according to Mcdonald, "Point by point, he showed me where I was wrong. I was beautifully chewed out".
According to actor Tim Matheson, Fletch was the first film Chase did after cleaning up his drug problem. However, the studio hired director Michael Ritchie to keep Chase in check. During principal photography, Ritchie would do one take sticking close to the script and then another take allowing Chase to ad-lib. Chase enjoyed the role because it allowed him to play a wide variety of different characters. He said in an interview, "I love props, like wigs and buck-teeth and glasses. At one point I wear an Afro and play basketball with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
. There were some scenes where I didn't recognize myself". The comedian enjoyed working with director Ritchie because he gave him the freedom to improvise: "It all began when [costar] Tim Matheson asked me what my name was. Right away, with a straight face: 'Ted Nugent
'."
Fletch received mixed to positive reviews and has a 73% rating on Rotten Tomatoes
. Film critic Roger Ebert
gave the film two-and-a-half stars out of four and wrote, "The problem is, Chase's performance tends to reduce all the scenes to the same level, at least as far as he is concerned. He projects such an inflexible mask of cool detachment, of ironic running commentary, that we're prevented from identifying with him ... Fletch needed an actor more interested in playing the character than in playing himself". Vincent Canby
in his review for the New York Times praised Chase's performance, writing, "He manages simultaneously to act the material with a good deal of nonchalance and to float above it, as if he wanted us to know that he knows that the whole enterprise is somewhat less than transcendental". Time
magazine's Richard Schickel
wrote, "In Fletch the quick, smartly paced gags somehow read as signs of vulnerability. Incidentally, they add greatly to the movie's suspense. Every minute you expect the hero's loose lip to be turned into a fat one". In his review for the Chicago Reader, Dave Kehr wrote, "Chase and Ritchie make a strong, natural combination: the union of their two flip, sarcastic personalities produces a fairly definitive example of the comic style of the 80s, grounded in detachment, underreaction, and cool contempt for rhetorically overblown authority figures".
, Bergman tries to explain its appeal. “It’s so bizarre, but Fletch strikes a chord. There’s a group of movies like that in the ‘80s, like Caddyshack
, too, that captured a certain wise-ass thing.” In particular, the film appeals to college students who have asked Chase to talk about it at film classes. The actor has said that the appeal of the character is "the cheekiness of the guy...everybody at that age would like to be as quick-witted as Fletch, and as uncaring about what others think." Chase has said that this film is his favorite to date because "it allowed me to be myself. Fletch was the first one with me really winging it. Even though there was a script, the director allowed me to just go, and in many ways, I was directing the comedy." Perhaps the most meaningful praise comes from Mcdonald himself: "I watched it recently, and I think Chevy and Michael Ritchie
did a good job with it". The film was voted as the 23rd best film set in Los Angeles in the last 25 years by a group of Los Angeles Times
writers and editors with two criteria: "The movie had to communicate some inherent truth about the L.A. experience, and only one film per director was allowed on the list" The 2005 animated feature Hoodwinked
depicted the Big Bad Wolf (from Little Red Riding Hood
) as a sarcastic investigative reporter in a direct parody of Fletch, right up to the Lakers shirt, disguises, and a version of Fletch's theme playing during his scenes.
felt that this version was a decent replacement for anyone who still owned the film on VHS
but for "anyone seeking more than that will be sadly disappointed by the ill-executed extras and slap-dash sound upgrade".
Additionally, the film was also the next-to-last to be released by Universal on the HD DVD
format, March 11, 2008 and later released on Blu-ray disc on June 2, 2009.
.
A follow-up to Fletch Lives had been discussed in the 90s at Universal Studios
. During his association with Universal after the production of Mallrats
(this was because Gramercy Pictures was co-owned by Universal), Kevin Smith expressed interest in doing a third "Fletch" film as a sequel starring Chevy Chase but it never came to fruition. In June 2000, it was announced that Kevin Smith
was set to write and direct a Fletch film at Miramax Films
, after the rights to the books, which Universal Studios
had owned, reverted. At the time, Miramax co-head Harvey Weinstein
, expressed the hope that a new Fletch series would be "Miramax Films' first-ever franchise."
After a disagreement between Chase and Smith in regard to differing levels of priority for the sequel project, Smith settled on adapting Fletch Won, which follows Fletch in his early years as newspaper junior reporter. Smith intended to follow the novel's plot and characters much more closely than earlier Fletch films had. Filming the prequel/origin story would have allowed Smith to make the movie without Chase while still leaving the door open for him to appear in a cameo role in framing scenes and/or as narrator. Around this time, Smith mentioned Jason Lee and Ben Affleck
as possible choices to play Fletch.
In August 2003, it was reported that the film was set to start shooting in January, with Smith still at the helm. Though Smith insisted on casting Lee in the lead role, Miramax head Harvey Weinstein refused to take a chance on Lee, citing the general inability of his films to gross more than $30 million at the box office. The role of Fletch remained uncast, with Smith considering a list of actors including Affleck, Brad Pitt
, Zach Galifianakis
, Will Smith
, and Jimmy Fallon
. Though Smith considered compromising and casting Zach Braff
in the role, he eventually left the project in October 2005.
Smith was replaced as writer/director by Scrubs
creator Bill Lawrence
, in what would have been his directorial debut. He had enthused, "Not only can I recite the original Fletch movie line for line, I actually read all the Greg McDonald books as a kid. Consider me obsessed — I'm going to try as hard as I can not to screw this up." Lawrence was signed to direct both Fletch Won and a sequel. Scrubs star Zach Braff was rumored to be in talks for the lead role, and in January 2007, Braff posted on his web site that "Bill Lawrence is writing and directing Fletch in the spring and he wants me to play young Fletch, but no firm plans are in place yet. He is still writing the script." In April 2007, Braff announced that he had dropped out of the film to work on his own film, Open Hearts. In June 2007 it was announced that Lawrence was off the project and had been replaced by Steve Pink
.
Comedy film
Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...
about a wisecracking investigative newspaper reporter, Irwin M. Fletcher (Chevy Chase
Chevy Chase
Cornelius Crane "Chevy" Chase is an American comedian, writer, and television and film actor, born into a prominent entertainment industry family. Chase worked a plethora of odd jobs before moving into comedy acting with National Lampoon...
), who writes under the name of Jane Doe. The film was based on the popular Gregory Mcdonald
Gregory Mcdonald
Gregory Mcdonald was an American mystery writer best known for his character Irwin Maurice Fletcher, an investigative reporter otherwise known as "Fletch." Fletch was later played by Chevy Chase in the movie of the same name...
novels
Fletch (novel)
Fletch is a 1974 mystery novel by Gregory Mcdonald, the first in a series featuring the character Irwin Maurice Fletcher.-Plot introduction:...
, the screenplay was written by Andrew Bergman
Andrew Bergman
Andrew Bergman is an American screenwriter, film director, and novelist. New York magazine in 1985 dubbed him "The Unknown King of Comedy".He graduated from Binghamton University and earned a Ph.D...
and it was directed by Michael Ritchie
Michael Ritchie (film director)
Michael Brunswick Ritchie was an American film director.Ritchie was born in Waukesha, Wisconsin, the son of Patricia and Benbow Ferguson Ritchie...
.
In the 1970s, Burt Reynolds
Burt Reynolds
Burton Leon "Burt" Reynolds, Jr. is an American actor. Some of his memorable roles include Bo 'Bandit' Darville in Smokey and the Bandit, Lewis Medlock in Deliverance, Bobby "Gator" McCluskey in White Lightning and sequel Gator, Paul Crewe and Coach Nate Scarborough in The Longest Yard and its...
and Mick Jagger
Mick Jagger
Sir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger is an English musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist and a founding member of The Rolling Stones....
were considered to portray Fletch on the big screen but these suggestions were rejected by Mcdonald. The author agreed to the casting of Chevy Chase despite never seeing the comedian in anything. Chase reportedly enjoyed the role because it allowed him to play several different characters and work with props. In a 2004 interview with Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
, Chase confirmed this was his favorite role.
Fletch earned several positive reviews from critics and performed well at the box office and home video. It has since developed a cult following
Cult following
A cult following is a group of fans who are highly dedicated to a specific area of pop culture. A film, book, band, or video game, among other things, will be said to have a cult following when it has a small but very passionate fan base...
and was followed by a 1989 sequel, Fletch Lives
Fletch Lives
Fletch Lives is a 1989 comedy film starring Chevy Chase. It was directed by Michael Ritchie with a screenplay by Leon Capetanos based on the character created by Gregory Mcdonald. Fletch Lives was released by Universal Pictures. It is a sequel to the 1985 film Fletch.- Plot :Chevy Chase once again...
. A prequel, Fletch Won, has been in talks for more than a decade.
Plot
The film opens with one of Fletch's many, often humorous, monologues. The drug trade is Fletch's latest story, and while investigating undercover as a beach wanderer one day he is approached by a well-groomed man, Alan Stanwyk (Tim MathesonTim Matheson
Tim Matheson is an American actor, director and producer. He is perhaps best known for his portrayal of the smooth-talking Eric 'Otter' Stratton in the 1978 comedy National Lampoon's Animal House and has had a variety of other well-known roles, including providing the voice of the lead character...
). Stanwyk says he wants Fletch to murder him because he has inoperable cancer; this way his family will receive his life insurance. Unaware that Fletch is actually an undercover reporter, Stanwyk thinks he would be the perfect man for the job, as he appears to be a person of no consequence, who can thus simply disappear after the shooting without any suspicions being raised. Fletch agrees to kill Stanwyk when offered a considerable sum of money, but is suspicious of Stanwyk's motives. Fletch starts to dig, and uncovers a story much greater than his exposé of small-time drug dealers. As he uncovers the lurid truth about Stanwyk, he also discovers that a sinister police chief (Joe Don Baker
Joe Don Baker
Joe Don Baker is an American film actor, perhaps best known for his roles as a Mafia hitman in Charley Varrick, deputy sheriff Thomas Jefferson Geronimo III in Final Justice, real-life Tennessee Sheriff Buford Pusser in Walking Tall, brute force with a badge detective Mitchell in Mitchell, James...
) is behind the drug trafficking on Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
' beaches.
Cast and characters
- Chevy ChaseChevy ChaseCornelius Crane "Chevy" Chase is an American comedian, writer, and television and film actor, born into a prominent entertainment industry family. Chase worked a plethora of odd jobs before moving into comedy acting with National Lampoon...
as Irwin M. "Fletch" Fletcher - Joe Don BakerJoe Don BakerJoe Don Baker is an American film actor, perhaps best known for his roles as a Mafia hitman in Charley Varrick, deputy sheriff Thomas Jefferson Geronimo III in Final Justice, real-life Tennessee Sheriff Buford Pusser in Walking Tall, brute force with a badge detective Mitchell in Mitchell, James...
as Chief Jerry Karlin - Dana Wheeler-NicholsonDana Wheeler-NicholsonDana Wheeler-Nicholson is an American actress.Sometimes credited as Dana Wheeler Nicholson, she has appeared in numerous movies, but is probably best known for her role in Fletch as Gail Stanwyk and in Tombstone as Mattie Blaylock Dana Wheeler-Nicholson (born New York City, New York, October 9,...
as Gail Stanwyk - Richard LibertiniRichard LibertiniRichard Libertini is an American stage, film and television actor known for playing numerous character roles and his ability to speak in numerous accents....
as Frank Walker - Geena DavisGeena DavisVirginia Elizabeth "Geena" Davis is an American actress, film producer, writer, former fashion model, and a women's Olympics archery team semi-finalist...
as Larry - Tim MathesonTim MathesonTim Matheson is an American actor, director and producer. He is perhaps best known for his portrayal of the smooth-talking Eric 'Otter' Stratton in the 1978 comedy National Lampoon's Animal House and has had a variety of other well-known roles, including providing the voice of the lead character...
as Alan Stanwyk - M. Emmet WalshM. Emmet WalshMichael Emmet Walsh is an American actor who has appeared in over 100 film and television productions.-Life and career:Walsh was born in Ogdensburg, New York, the son of Agnes Kathrine and Harry Maurice Walsh, Sr., a customs agent...
as Dr. Joseph Dolan - George WendtGeorge WendtGeorge Robert Wendt III is an American actor, best known for the roles of Norm Peterson and Tug Clarke on the television shows Cheers and Modern Men.-Early life:...
as Fat Sam - Kenneth MarsKenneth MarsKenneth Mars was an American television, movie, and voice actor. He may be best-remembered for his roles in several Mel Brooks films: the insane Nazi playwright Franz Liebkind in 1968's The Producers, and the relentless Police Inspector Hans Wilhelm Fredrich Kemp in 1974's Young Frankenstein...
as Stanton Boyd - George WynerGeorge WynerGeorge Wyner is an American film and television actor. He is probably best known for his role as ADA Bernstein on the series Hill Street Blues. Wyner graduated from Syracuse University in 1968 as a drama major, and was an in-demand character actor by the early 1970s. To date, Wyner has made guest...
as Marvin Gillet - Kareem Abdul-JabbarKareem Abdul-JabbarKareem Abdul-Jabbar is a retired American professional basketball player. He is the NBA's all-time leading scorer, with 38,387 points. During his career with the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Lakers from 1969 to 1989, Abdul-Jabbar won six NBA championships and a record six regular season...
as Himself - Chick HearnChick HearnFrancis Dayle "Chick" Hearn was an American sportscaster. Known primarily as the long-time play-by-play announcer for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association, the legendary Hearn is remembered for his rapid fire, staccato broadcasting style, inventing colorful phrases such...
as Himself - James Avery as Detective #2
- Reid Cruickshanks as Sergeant
- Bruce FrenchBruce French (actor)Bruce French is an American actor who has more than 30 years of acting credits to his name.French attended the University of Iowa and majored in speech and theatre...
as Dr. Holmes - Burton GilliamBurton GilliamBurton Gilliam is an American actor.-Career:Prior to acting, Gilliam was a member of the Coast Guard's boxing team and reportedly posted a record of 201 wins out of 217 fights during his enlistment. Gilliam was credited with winning more Golden Gloves bouts than anyone in its history at that time...
as Bud - David W. HarperDavid W. HarperDavid William Harper is an American actor.Harper is most noted for the role of Jim Bob Walton, which he first portrayed in the 1971 movie The Homecoming: A Christmas Story, and subsequently in the series The Waltons...
as Teenager (as David Harper) - Alison La Placa as Pan Am Clerk (as Alison Laplaca)
- Joe Praml as Watchman
- William SandersonWilliam SandersonWilliam Sanderson is an American character actor.-Early life:Sanderson was born in Memphis, Tennessee, to an elementary school teacher mother and a landscape designer father...
as Jim Swarthout - Penny Santon as Velma Stanwyk
- Robert Sorrells as Marvin Stanwyk
- Beau StarrBeau StarrBeau Starr is an American actor who has starred in movies and on television. He is known for his film role as Sheriff Ben Meeker in the 1988 hit horror movie Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers; he reprised his role in the 1989 sequel Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers.Starr was born...
as Willy
Production
Gregory McdonaldGregory Mcdonald
Gregory Mcdonald was an American mystery writer best known for his character Irwin Maurice Fletcher, an investigative reporter otherwise known as "Fletch." Fletch was later played by Chevy Chase in the movie of the same name...
's novel was very successful and soon Hollywood came calling. His Fletch books were optioned around the mid to late 1970s but the author had retained the right of approving the actor cast to play Fletch. He rejected the likes of Burt Reynolds
Burt Reynolds
Burton Leon "Burt" Reynolds, Jr. is an American actor. Some of his memorable roles include Bo 'Bandit' Darville in Smokey and the Bandit, Lewis Medlock in Deliverance, Bobby "Gator" McCluskey in White Lightning and sequel Gator, Paul Crewe and Coach Nate Scarborough in The Longest Yard and its...
and Mick Jagger
Mick Jagger
Sir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger is an English musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist and a founding member of The Rolling Stones....
. When the studio mentioned Chevy Chase as Fletch, Mcdonald (even though he had never really seen Chase in anything) agreed. Years before, Chase's manager recommended Mcdonald's books to him but he was not interested at the time. When an old friend and producer Alan Greisman and screenwriter Andrew Bergman
Andrew Bergman
Andrew Bergman is an American screenwriter, film director, and novelist. New York magazine in 1985 dubbed him "The Unknown King of Comedy".He graduated from Binghamton University and earned a Ph.D...
got involved, Chase agreed to do it. Mcdonald sent Chase a telegram saying, "I am delighted to abdicate the role of Fletch to you". Bergman was hired to adapt Mcdonald's book into screenplay form. Bergman remembers that he wrote the screenplay "very fast – I did the first draft in four weeks ... Then there was a certain amount of improv, and something that we used to call dial-a-joke". Mcdonald read the script and was angry by how far it strayed from his book. He wrote to the studio and listed his many objections to the screenplay. Director Michael Ritchie invited Mcdonald to the set of the film and took him out to dinner where, according to Mcdonald, "Point by point, he showed me where I was wrong. I was beautifully chewed out".
According to actor Tim Matheson, Fletch was the first film Chase did after cleaning up his drug problem. However, the studio hired director Michael Ritchie to keep Chase in check. During principal photography, Ritchie would do one take sticking close to the script and then another take allowing Chase to ad-lib. Chase enjoyed the role because it allowed him to play a wide variety of different characters. He said in an interview, "I love props, like wigs and buck-teeth and glasses. At one point I wear an Afro and play basketball with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is a retired American professional basketball player. He is the NBA's all-time leading scorer, with 38,387 points. During his career with the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Lakers from 1969 to 1989, Abdul-Jabbar won six NBA championships and a record six regular season...
. There were some scenes where I didn't recognize myself". The comedian enjoyed working with director Ritchie because he gave him the freedom to improvise: "It all began when [costar] Tim Matheson asked me what my name was. Right away, with a straight face: 'Ted Nugent
Ted Nugent
Theodore Anthony "Ted" Nugent is an American guitarist, musician, singer, author, reserve police officer, and activist. From Detroit, Michigan, he originally gained fame as the lead guitarist of The Amboy Dukes, before embarking on a lengthy solo career...
'."
Soundtrack
- Stephanie MillsStephanie MillsStephanie Dorthea Mills is an American R&B and soul singer, and a former Broadway star.-Career:Mills began her career appearing in her first play at the age of nine. Two years later, Mills won Amateur Night at the Apollo Theater a record six times...
- "Bit by Bit (Theme from Fletch)" 3:38 - Dan HartmanDan HartmanDaniel Earl "Dan" Hartman was an American singer, songwriter and record producer, best known for such songs as: "Free Ride", "I Can Dream About You", "Instant Replay", "Love Sensation", and "Relight My Fire", all of which had world-wide success.-Career:Born in Pennsylvania's capital, Harrisburg,...
- "Fletch, Get Outta Town" 4:11 - John FarnhamJohn FarnhamJohn Peter Farnham, AO, formerly billed as Johnny Farnham , is an English-born Australian pop singer. He was a teen pop idol from 1964 to 1979, and has since forged a career as an adult contemporary singer. His career has mostly been as a solo artist although he briefly replaced Glenn Shorrock as...
- "Running for Love" 2:54 - Dan Hartman - "Name of the Game" 6:02
- Harold FaltermeyerHarold FaltermeyerHarold Faltermeyer is a German musician, keyboardist, composer and record producer.He is recognized as one of the composers/producers who best captured the zeitgeist of 1980s synth-pop in film scores...
- "Fletch Theme" 3:48 - The FixxThe FixxThe Fixx is an English rock band formed in London in 1979. Their hits include "One Thing Leads to Another," "Red Skies," "Stand or Fall," "Saved by Zero," "Sign of Fire," "Are We Ourselves?," "Secret Separation," "Driven Out," "How Much Is Enough?," and "Deeper and Deeper," which was featured on...
- A Letter to Both Sides 3:20 - Kim WildeKim WildeKim Wilde is an English pop singer, author and television presenter who burst onto the music scene in 1981 with the number 2 UK Singles Chart new wave classic "Kids in America". In 1987 she had a major hit in the United States when her version of The Supremes' classic "You Keep Me Hangin' On"...
- "Is It Over" 3:52 - Harold Faltermeyer - "Diggin' In" 2:44
- Harold Faltermeyer - "Exotic Skates" 3:00
- Harold Faltermeyer - "Running for Love" [instrumental] 2:44
Reception
Fletch was released on May 31, 1985 in 1,225 theaters, grossing $7 million on its opening weekend. It went on to make $50.6 million in North America and $9 million in the rest of the world for a worldwide total of $59.6 million. The film performed well on home video, earning $24.4 million in rentals.Fletch received mixed to positive reviews and has a 73% rating on Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
. Film critic Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
gave the film two-and-a-half stars out of four and wrote, "The problem is, Chase's performance tends to reduce all the scenes to the same level, at least as far as he is concerned. He projects such an inflexible mask of cool detachment, of ironic running commentary, that we're prevented from identifying with him ... Fletch needed an actor more interested in playing the character than in playing himself". Vincent Canby
Vincent Canby
Vincent Canby was an American film critic who became the chief film critic for The New York Times in 1969 and reviewed more than 1000 films during his tenure there.-Life and career:...
in his review for the New York Times praised Chase's performance, writing, "He manages simultaneously to act the material with a good deal of nonchalance and to float above it, as if he wanted us to know that he knows that the whole enterprise is somewhat less than transcendental". Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine's Richard Schickel
Richard Schickel
Richard Warren Schickel is an American author, journalist, and documentary filmmaker. He is a film critic for Time magazine, having also written for Life magazine and the Los Angeles Times Book Review....
wrote, "In Fletch the quick, smartly paced gags somehow read as signs of vulnerability. Incidentally, they add greatly to the movie's suspense. Every minute you expect the hero's loose lip to be turned into a fat one". In his review for the Chicago Reader, Dave Kehr wrote, "Chase and Ritchie make a strong, natural combination: the union of their two flip, sarcastic personalities produces a fairly definitive example of the comic style of the 80s, grounded in detachment, underreaction, and cool contempt for rhetorically overblown authority figures".
Legacy
Fletch has become a cult film. In an interview for the New York PostNew York Post
The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
, Bergman tries to explain its appeal. “It’s so bizarre, but Fletch strikes a chord. There’s a group of movies like that in the ‘80s, like Caddyshack
Caddyshack
Caddyshack is a 1980 American comedy film directed by Harold Ramis and written by Brian Doyle-Murray, Ramis, and Douglas Kenney. It stars Chevy Chase, Rodney Dangerfield, Ted Knight, Michael O'Keefe, Cindy Morgan, and Bill Murray...
, too, that captured a certain wise-ass thing.” In particular, the film appeals to college students who have asked Chase to talk about it at film classes. The actor has said that the appeal of the character is "the cheekiness of the guy...everybody at that age would like to be as quick-witted as Fletch, and as uncaring about what others think." Chase has said that this film is his favorite to date because "it allowed me to be myself. Fletch was the first one with me really winging it. Even though there was a script, the director allowed me to just go, and in many ways, I was directing the comedy." Perhaps the most meaningful praise comes from Mcdonald himself: "I watched it recently, and I think Chevy and Michael Ritchie
Michael Ritchie (film director)
Michael Brunswick Ritchie was an American film director.Ritchie was born in Waukesha, Wisconsin, the son of Patricia and Benbow Ferguson Ritchie...
did a good job with it". The film was voted as the 23rd best film set in Los Angeles in the last 25 years by a group of Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
writers and editors with two criteria: "The movie had to communicate some inherent truth about the L.A. experience, and only one film per director was allowed on the list" The 2005 animated feature Hoodwinked
Hoodwinked
Hoodwinked!, also titled Hoodwinked on its theatrical poster and in other sources, is a 2005 American computer-animated family action comedy film, produced by Blue Yonder Films with Kanbar Entertainment, directed by Cory Edwards, Todd Edwards, Tony Leech, and produced by Maurice Kanbar, David K....
depicted the Big Bad Wolf (from Little Red Riding Hood
Little Red Riding Hood
Little Red Riding Hood, also known as Little Red Cap, is a French fairy tale about a young girl and a Big Bad Wolf. The story has been changed considerably in its history and subject to numerous modern adaptations and readings....
) as a sarcastic investigative reporter in a direct parody of Fletch, right up to the Lakers shirt, disguises, and a version of Fletch's theme playing during his scenes.
DVD
Fletch was originally released on DVD in 1998, but this release quickly went out of print. Universal Home Video re-released a special edition of Fletch - the "Jane Doe" Edition on May 1, 2007. The film is presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen, along with an English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround track and includes the retrospective featurettes, "Just Charge It to the Underhills: Making and Remembering Fletch," "From John Coctoastan To Harry S. Truman: The Disguises" and "Favorite Fletch Moments". IGNIGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
felt that this version was a decent replacement for anyone who still owned the film on VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
but for "anyone seeking more than that will be sadly disappointed by the ill-executed extras and slap-dash sound upgrade".
Additionally, the film was also the next-to-last to be released by Universal on the HD DVD
HD DVD
HD DVD is a discontinued high-density optical disc format for storing data and high-definition video.Supported principally by Toshiba, HD DVD was envisioned to be the successor to the standard DVD format...
format, March 11, 2008 and later released on Blu-ray disc on June 2, 2009.
Sequel and prequel
The film was followed by a 1989 sequel, Fletch LivesFletch Lives
Fletch Lives is a 1989 comedy film starring Chevy Chase. It was directed by Michael Ritchie with a screenplay by Leon Capetanos based on the character created by Gregory Mcdonald. Fletch Lives was released by Universal Pictures. It is a sequel to the 1985 film Fletch.- Plot :Chevy Chase once again...
.
A follow-up to Fletch Lives had been discussed in the 90s at Universal Studios
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
. During his association with Universal after the production of Mallrats
Mallrats
Mallrats is a 1995 film written and directed by Kevin Smith. It is the second to be set in Smith's View Askewniverse series of interlocking films set mostly in New Jersey, although the movie was filmed in Eden Prairie Center and Osowski's Flea Market which are located in Minnesota...
(this was because Gramercy Pictures was co-owned by Universal), Kevin Smith expressed interest in doing a third "Fletch" film as a sequel starring Chevy Chase but it never came to fruition. In June 2000, it was announced that Kevin Smith
Kevin Smith
Kevin Patrick Smith is an American screenwriter, actor, film producer, and director, as well as a popular comic book writer, author, comedian/raconteur, and internet radio personality best recognized by viewers as Silent Bob...
was set to write and direct a Fletch film at Miramax Films
Miramax Films
Miramax Films is an American entertainment company known for distributing independent and foreign films. For its first 14 years the company was privately owned by its founders, Bob and Harvey Weinstein...
, after the rights to the books, which Universal Studios
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
had owned, reverted. At the time, Miramax co-head Harvey Weinstein
Harvey Weinstein
Harvey Weinstein, CBE is an American film producer and movie studio chairman. He is best known as co-founder of Miramax Films. He and his brother Bob have been co-chairmen of The Weinstein Company, their film production company, since 2005...
, expressed the hope that a new Fletch series would be "Miramax Films' first-ever franchise."
After a disagreement between Chase and Smith in regard to differing levels of priority for the sequel project, Smith settled on adapting Fletch Won, which follows Fletch in his early years as newspaper junior reporter. Smith intended to follow the novel's plot and characters much more closely than earlier Fletch films had. Filming the prequel/origin story would have allowed Smith to make the movie without Chase while still leaving the door open for him to appear in a cameo role in framing scenes and/or as narrator. Around this time, Smith mentioned Jason Lee and Ben Affleck
Ben Affleck
Benjamin Géza Affleck-Boldt , better known as Ben Affleck, is an American actor, film director, writer, and producer. He became known with his performances in Kevin Smith's films such as Mallrats and Chasing Amy...
as possible choices to play Fletch.
In August 2003, it was reported that the film was set to start shooting in January, with Smith still at the helm. Though Smith insisted on casting Lee in the lead role, Miramax head Harvey Weinstein refused to take a chance on Lee, citing the general inability of his films to gross more than $30 million at the box office. The role of Fletch remained uncast, with Smith considering a list of actors including Affleck, Brad Pitt
Brad Pitt
William Bradley "Brad" Pitt is an American actor and film producer. Pitt has received two Academy Award nominations and four Golden Globe Award nominations, winning one...
, Zach Galifianakis
Zach Galifianakis
Zachary Knight "Zach" Galifianakis is an American stand-up comedian and actor known for his numerous film and television appearances including his own Comedy Central Presents special...
, Will Smith
Will Smith
Willard Christopher "Will" Smith, Jr. , also known by his stage name The Fresh Prince, is an American actor, producer, and rapper. He has enjoyed success in television, film and music. In April 2007, Newsweek called him the most powerful actor in Hollywood...
, and Jimmy Fallon
Jimmy Fallon
James Thomas "Jimmy" Fallon, Jr. is an American actor, comedian, singer, musician and television host. He currently hosts Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, a late-night talk show that airs Monday through Friday on NBC...
. Though Smith considered compromising and casting Zach Braff
Zach Braff
Zachary Israel "Zach" Braff is an American actor, screenwriter, producer, comedian, and director. Braff first became known in 2001 for his role as Dr. John Dorian on the television series Scrubs, for which he was nominated for an Emmy Award and three Golden Globe Awards.In 2004, Braff made his...
in the role, he eventually left the project in October 2005.
Smith was replaced as writer/director by Scrubs
Scrubs (TV series)
Scrubs is an American medical comedy-drama television series created in 2001 by Bill Lawrence and produced by ABC Studios. The show follows the lives of several employees of the fictional Sacred Heart, a teaching hospital. It features fast-paced screenplay, slapstick, and surreal vignettes...
creator Bill Lawrence
Bill Lawrence (producer)
William Van Duzer Lawrence IV is an American screenwriter, producer, and director best known as the creator of Scrubs and co-creator of Cougar Town. Lawrence is married to the actress Christa Miller whom he cast in both television series; they have three children together...
, in what would have been his directorial debut. He had enthused, "Not only can I recite the original Fletch movie line for line, I actually read all the Greg McDonald books as a kid. Consider me obsessed — I'm going to try as hard as I can not to screw this up." Lawrence was signed to direct both Fletch Won and a sequel. Scrubs star Zach Braff was rumored to be in talks for the lead role, and in January 2007, Braff posted on his web site that "Bill Lawrence is writing and directing Fletch in the spring and he wants me to play young Fletch, but no firm plans are in place yet. He is still writing the script." In April 2007, Braff announced that he had dropped out of the film to work on his own film, Open Hearts. In June 2007 it was announced that Lawrence was off the project and had been replaced by Steve Pink
Steve Pink
Steve Pink is an American actor, screenwriter and director. He is the director of the comedy films Accepted and Hot Tub Time Machine, and the co-writer of the films Grosse Pointe Blank and High Fidelity....
.