FLETCH Reboot Moves From Warner Brothers To Relativity

Warner Brothers is out of the Fletch business but Relativity Studios is now in the Fletch business. The Tracking Board is reporting that the new attempt to bring author Gregory McDonald’s wisecracking detective back to the big screen has changed hands. Warners had picked up the movie rights to the twelve book series in 2011.

Previously, Chevy Chase headlined two Fletch films – the original Fletch (1985) and 1989’s Fletch Lives.

The project, currently titled Fletch Won, has been in development for a number of years. 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. When Warners purchased the rights to the books they first set Seinfeld writer-producer David Mandel to the task of adaptation.

Currently, Jason Sudeikis is attached to star.