With virtually no promotion for its release, you couldn’t be blamed for assuming that Miramax’s Confess, Fletch was going to be written off as a flop. Instead, director Greg Mottola has been tapped to write a script based on Gregory McDonald’s novel Fletch’s Fortune, demonstrating that the studio is at least pleased with the actual finished product of the previous film. Mottola admits he isn’t sure whether just writing a script means the movie will actually get made, but producer Bill Block has championed Confess, Fletch throughout the production and release process, and he wants to at least have the option open, apparently.
Fletch’s Fortune is the third Fletch novel from author Gregory McDonald, and the second Miramax has the rights to. Due to an unusual situation with the rights, the original Fletch movie isn’t included in the package Miramax acquired. Mottola didn’t say why, but presumably, those rights are still with Universal, who made a movie based on the original Fletch in 1985. Miramax also doesn’t hold the rights to the Flynn spinoff series, which is why his character had to be replaced in Confess, Fletch.
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“Bill Block…he’s been really loyal to this. He’s actually hired me to write a sequel. Will it ever get made? I’m not sure,” Mottola recently told Uproxx, adding that the script is for “Fletch’s Fortune. And Fletch’s Fortune all takes place at a journalism conference, so I’ve got lots of ideas how to bring that into all the insane worlds of today.”
It seems fair to assume that there are a total of six books Mottola and Hamm could adapt, assuming the franchise does move forward and there continues to be interest. Without Fletch, that leaves ten books in the main-line Fletch series, but four of those are unlikely candidates for adaptation: Fletch Won and Fletch, Too are prequels, set before the events of the first book. While Fletch Won was at the center of two different attempts to adapt the property in the past (one by Kevin Smith, which would have starred Jason Lee as Fletch; and one by Bill Lawrence, which would have starred Zach Braff). Son of Fletch and Fletch Reflected feature Fletch only in a minor supporting role, and introduce a new lead character in the form of Jack Fletcher Faoni, Fletch’s son.
In Fletch’s Fortune, the character finds himself the subject of a nasty tax investigation, and the government uses that leverage to blackmail him into spying on some other journalists at a convention. Shortly after his arrival at the convention, though, everything goes to hell when influential publisher Walter March is murdered.
In this delightful comedy romp, Jon Hamm stars as the roguishly charming and endlessly troublesome Fletch, who becomes the prime suspect in a murder case while searching for a stolen art collection. The only way to prove his innocence? Find out which of the long list of suspects is the culprit – from the eccentric art dealer and a missing playboy to a crazy neighbor and Fletch’s Italian girlfriend. Crime, in fact, has never been this disorganized.
Confess, Fletch stars Jon Hamm, Roy Wood Jr., Annie Mumolo, Ayden Mayeri, Lorenzo Izzo, Kyle MacLachlan, Marcia Gay Harden, and John Slattery. The movie will be released in theaters and on Digital on September 16.
