Jason Sudeikis In Talks To Star In FLETCH Reboot

After years of failed attempts at a couple of different studios, it looks like Warner Brothers has finally found a way to relaunch the comedy/mystery franchise Fletch and is in talks with Jason Sudeikis to bring the wisecracking investigative reporter first made popular on the big screen by Chevy Chase to life.

Oddly enough, the Hollywood Reporter is stating that Steve Golin and Michael Sugar’s screenplay for Fletch Won is an original story despite it bearing the title of one of author Gregory McDonald’s 12 Fletch novels. The novel Fletch Won centered on the character just at the beginning of his career, a time in the character’s life that I think Sudeikis is just a bit too old for, so perhaps it’s best that it is an original story.

However, the Reporter is stating that the film will still be an origin story and is stating their sources describe the film as “a gritty action comedy with heart and more tonally in line with McDonald’s novels than the Chase movies.”

Previously, Kevin Smith, a self-avowed fan of McDonald’s Fletch books, had tried unsuccessfully to bring the series to the big screen with Jason Lee in the lead. That attempt fell apart when Smith and studio boss Harvey Weinstein couldn’t come to terms over Lee’s casting, the story of which Smith tells here. Bill Lawrence, creator of the television series Scrubs. Hot Tub Time Machine director Steve Pink also took a stab at a script though that went nowhere as well.

Warners purchased the rights to the books in February 2011 and first set Seinfeld writer-producer David Mandel to the task of adaptation.

The studio is now looking for a director.