Gregory Macdonald: Last News

Zack Sharf How committed was Jon Hamm to getting “Confess, Fletch” made? Director Greg Mottola revealed to Uproxx (via IndieWire) that the “Mad Men” Emmy winner gave back 60 percent of his salary to help finance three extra days of filming on the indie project. Mottola also gave up a portion of his own salary to extend the shoot. According to Mottola, the money that Miramax executive Bill Block was able to put up for the film only covered 27 days of shooting. When Mottola and Hamm went out to find extra funding to bring the shoot to 30 days, they were rejected by every financier. “Everyone said, ‘I don’t know that this kind of comedy works in this day and age,'” Mottola said. “They just had a kind of like, ‘Who’s Fletch? I don’t think anyone cares anymore.’

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic One of the greatest mysteries that ever faced investigative reporter Irwin Maurice Fletcher (“Fletch” to his friends) is why there haven’t been more movies featuring the character. Gregory Mcdonald’s popular Fletch novels, of which there are 11, were practically all dialogue. The author’s breezy style of repartee — which owed more to Hollywood’s screwball comedy tradition than film noir — should have lent itself well to screenplays, but only two ever got made: Back in the ’80s, we got a couple that positioned Chevy Chase as a goofy sleuth with a penchant for disguise, and others (including Jason Lee, Ben Affleck and Chris Tucker) have been trying to revive him ever since.

The problem with Michael Ritchie’s 1985 film “Fletch” is that it’s a perfectly good ’80s Chevy Chase action-comedy and a very bad adaptation of Gregory McDonald’s Edgar-award-winning mystery novel. It’s a dichotomy that becomes clear if you’re one of the many, many ’80s kids (hello) who watched “Fletch” on video and HBO so many times we memorized it and then went to read the book – and its ten (ten!) follow-ups – and discovered they were something different altogether.

Chevy Chase donned in the late '70s and '80s. Following his breakout turn as an original cast member, the actor and comedian went on to become a major comedic leading man, with a stretch of films that included, the National Lampoon series, and, of course, .So, when Jon Hamm signed on to embody the same character that Chase made a comedy icon in 1985's  and 1989's — based on the book series by Gregory Mcdonald — he wanted to pay tribute to the actor and comedian as a «tremendous fan,» without attempting to recreate his performance in any way.«Chevy's contribution to this franchise and to those first two movies are so particular to what he does, that had there been any attempt to do a Chevy Chase impression or anything like that, I would have almost felt like stealing,» Hamm shared with ET ahead of the release of«Like, I’m not going to steal those bits — those are his bits… What we really wanted to do was bring these characters and bring these stories to a completely new generation.» «The one thing we did as a very significant nod to Chevy was keep the Lakers hat,» he noted.

Jon Hamm and John Slattery are working together again!

Jon Hamm has begun filming the modern-day reboot of Fletch!

EXCLUSIVE: Oscar winner Marcia Gay Harden, Golden Globe winner Kyle MacLachlan and Daily Show correspondent Roy Wood Jr. are joining Jon Hamm in the Miramax movie Confess, Fletch, directed by Greg Mottola. Principal photography is set to start Monday, June 28.

Miramax and Jon Hamm are teaming for a reboot of Fletch, the 1980s Chevy Chase movie, based on the original Gregory Mcdonald mystery novels. Hamm will star as I.M.Fletcher, the hotshot investigative reporter played by Chase in the 1985 neo-noir comedy of the same name.

Fletch is getting a reboot!

Anthony D'Alessandro Editorial Director/Box Office EditorFletch is making a comeback: Jon Hamm will star as and produce a new feature film about the brazen investigative reporter to be directed by Superbad‘s Greg Mottola and Miramax. The movie, like the Chevy Chase films in the 1980s, is based on Gregory Mcdonald’s 1970s and 1980s Fletch mystery novels.The new film adaptation will specifically be based on the second book in the Mcdonald series, Confess, Fletch.