There has been talk of remaking Fletch for as long as I’ve followed the ups and downs of movie news. The most famous reboot / remake was to be helmed by Kevin Smith. Come to think about it, it was so endlessly talked about and hyped by Smith that we should have seen it as a sign of things to come….
But enough of that. According to Heat Vision, Warner Bros has bought the rights to Gregory McDonald’s novels, and have plans to reboot/remake the character. Steve Golin, Michael Sugar, and David List are producing, no writer or director has been attached yet.
I love the original Fletch. A lot of people do. Many of them will be screaming about the travesty of a remake.
But there’s just as many McDonald fans — if not more — who loathed Chase’s film, and have always wanted a more faithful adaptation of the character. They want the rest of the books put onto film. This may finally be their day.
It is tempting to scream and stomp about originality and the glut of remakes, but McDonald’s series is an untapped commodity. It should be adapted. Good detectives can survive numerous recastings and adaptations (how many Sherlocks have there been?), and the witty and weird Fletch is no exception. The Chevy Chase film will always be there — and what a delightful time capsule of humor it is — and the new one can be its own animal. It can actually be the Fletch of the books. Bring it on.