Published at: June 29, 2000, 7:12 a.m. CST by staff
Hey, all. "Moriarty" here. Just read a great story by Zorianna Kit over at Hollywood Reporter.com which details the truly kick-ass news that Kevin Smith will be writing and directing a new FLETCH film for Miramax.
Don't know what attachment any of you have to the original series of Gregory McDonald books, but I loved them. I actually first read the series before Chevy Chase played the character in Michael Ritchie's 1985 adaptation of the very first book, FLETCH. I thought Andrew Bergman did a phenomenal job of scripting that first film. He caught the exact tone that made Fletch such a wry pleasure on the page, and Chevy Chase finally found what should have been the perfect role for him. The original novel won an Edgar Award as Best Mystery Novel of the year when it was published, so it was gratifying to see that the focus in the first film remained squarely on the mystery aspect. More than anything, FLETCH seemed to be the hip '80s take on a tradition exemplified by THE THIN MAN series.
Readers of the books know that Gregory McDonald may well be one of the funniest novelists working. He shares a problem with guys like Carl Hiaasen, Douglas Adams, and Jay Cronley. These are authors with very particular voices. Successful adaptations must be faithful to the original voice, otherwise it won't work. When Hiaasen was adapted wrong (ironically enough, by Andrew Bergman, who did such a great job with FLETCH), it resulted in the disastrous STRIPTEASE. That was 1996, and the once-prolific Bergman hasn't penned a script since. Jay Cronley's books have resulted in the wonderful QUICK CHANGE (the adaptation by Howard Franklin and Bill Murray was remarkably faithful) and FUNNY FARM and HOT TO TROT (which weren't). We haven't seen a big-budget Adams film yet, but if THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY is going to work, they're going to have to capture the particular dynamics that Adams built that were so much a part of his comedy. Arthur has to be Arthur. Ford has to be Ford. Marvin has to be Marvin.
One paragraph in particular from the Hollywood Reporter story really made me happy:
"I was a huge fan of the series of books," Smith told The Hollywood Reporter. "I liked the movie quite a bit too, but the books were fantastic. That's actually where I learned to write dialogue."
Oh, man, Kevin... you've got such a chance here. If you do this right, you've got ELEVEN MOVIES you can make. That's incredible. The idea of Ben Affleck as Fletch doesn't do it for me, but your mention of Jason Lee... well, now... that's something. Lee's got the timing to be Fletch, and he's young enough that you might actually make all the films. Starting with FLETCH WON is brilliant, and it sets you up for any other book you want to do.
I remember a few years back when Kevin was attached to the FLETCH property for the first time. Universal offered it to him, and he actually brought Chevy Chase up as Fletch, resulting in the now-legendary comment, "We're not in the Chevy Chase business anymore." Smith talked about the film in a few places, and there was a lot of noise about it, but he never actually found the time in his schedule to write the FLETCH 3 script. Kevin actually went into a fair amount of detail about the incident in the interview he did with our own ELSTON GUNN here a little while back.
This is a better deal. Now Miramax has complete control of the property. Mosier and Smith can crank this franchise out, and as long as they respect the material, they can't go wrong. It's a goldmine, and I'm thrilled by the idea of what we might see. JasonLeeJasonLeeJasonLeeJasonLee. That's all I'm going to say.
