Fletch

Gregory McDonald’s hero, a wise-cracking and slobbish reporter, was a reaction against the unrealities of the conventional gumshoe’s macho altruism. Fletch shirks responsibility in general and heroics in particular. His interest is himself and he is only pressed reluctantly into heroics if it serves his libido, his longevitity, his ego, or his wallet.

He was also a reaction to the ponderous writing that characterized the genre. McDonald’s sparse style embraces the attention-getting techniques of television and the economic plotting of the original genre masters. Prose is downplayed and the emphasis is on crisp, fast moving dialogue and vividly choreographed sex and bloodshed. It’s almost like a screenplay, which is what “Fletch” has finally, and inevitably, become.

“Everyone between the ages of 17 to 70 has approached me about doing ‘Fletch,'” says McDonald. “It’s been so long coming the reality of finally being made hasn’t caught up with me yet.”

The reality is that Chevy Chase will portray Fletch for Director Michael (“The Candidate”) Ritchie and producers Peter (“Final Countdown”) Douglas and Alan (“Modern Problems”) Greisman from a screenplay written by Alan (“The In-Laws”) Bergman with some help from Phil Alden Robinson (“Rhinestone”) and Jerry (“Smokey and the Bandit III”) Belson. Joe Don Baker (“Walking Tall”), Tim (“Animal House”) Matheson and George (“Cheers”) Wendt are along for the ride.

“Fletch” may read like a good movie, but does that mean it can be one? If the movie history of the production staff is any indication, “Fletch” could easily become a parody of itself, a mad-cap comedy of dubious quality. But the fact that “Fletch” is even being made at all is a testament to Douglas’ dogged determination and, perhaps, an indication of how much pressure he will exert to keep the movie true to the book.

He picked up the book in 1974 at LAX and had it read by the time his plane touched down in New York. In the book, Fletch is lazing around as a beach bum to crack a seaside drug ring. Along the way, Fletch is ensnared in a plot by a rich aviation executive to embezzle several million dollars from the man’s company.

“Mr. Fletcher, I have a proposition to make to you. I will give you a thousand dollars just for listening to it,” said millionaire aviation exec Alan Stanwyk. “If you decide to reject the proposition, you take the thousand dollars and go away and never tell anyone we talked. Fair enough?”

“Is it criminal? I mean, what you want me to do?”

“Ofcourse.”

“Fair enough. For a thousand bucks I can listen. What do you want me to do?”

“I want you to murder me.”

Fletch said “Sure.”

It was “a great four hour read” and although he was only “a second assistant director with dreams of granduer” he began to chase after it. He tracked it down to Columbia Pictures, where comedian Alan King owned the rights but “didn’t appear to be doing anything with it.”

Douglas, son of actor Kirk Douglas, tried to get the project moving by arranging financing “but it always fell apart.” King lost interest and sold the rights to producer Jonathon Burrows.

“He was a young kid totally out of his element trying very hard to get ‘Fletch’ made,” recalls Douglas. “I was in a position where I could offer him a deal to do it.”

But the deal never materialized. The two clashed and Burrows ended up selling the rights to an English record company…where dastardly plans were afoot.

“They were talking about having Mick Jagger play Fletch,” Douglas says. “David Bowie was even mentioned.”

“It’s true, Mick expressed interest in playing ‘Fletch.'” McDonald says. “The situation existed for a long time and, thankfully, the man who ran the record company turned out to be one of the most decent men I have ever known. He considered the property first and his needs second.”

Douglas contacted the record company and “got a sense that they were interested in selling the rights. The movie business was too expensive for them.” But not for Douglas. In the 10 years since he first read “Fletch,” he had established himself as a talented producer, having brought “The Final Countdown” and Ray Bradbury’s “Something Wicked This Way Comes” to the screen.

Douglas met with William Morris agent Stan Kamen, who represented all Richie, Chase and much of the talent involved, and was able to package a sweet deal for Universal Studios. The studio bought “Fletch.”

And then asked for a whole new story.

“They didn’t think the plot was very interesting. The studio was loaded up on drug movies at that moment and selling drugs in Santa Monica just didn’t have any umph.
They, for some reason I could not fathom, wanted to set the
movie in Miami,” says Jerry Belson, who was brought in by producer Alan Greisman to fashion the fresh screenplay. “We went to Miami and concoted a brand new story not based on any ‘Fletch’ book. It was almost like an ‘Evita’ story, the wife of a latin american dictator uses her feminine wiles toget Fletch to help her. I guess it was kind of like ‘Body Heat,’ too.”

When Belson and Greisman returned, the “group of Universal execs who told us to go were thrown out and so was my script,” Belson says. “I guess it was darker than they had wanted.”

Douglas and Greisman went looking for a screenwriter to adapt the book. They settled on Andrew Bergman, who had written two detective novels in addition to his screenwriting work.

“I had never done an adaptation before, and that really appealed to me,” Bergman says. “The book had a lot of energy and fun and I thought it would be a good vehicle for Chevy Chase.”

Adapting means changing, and Bergman did. “The main problem was that most of the book takes place over the telephone which is something that won’t work on the screen,” he says. “I had to throw all that out and open it up, push Fletch out into the field, as it were. I also thought he was consistently nasty to women in the book, he brutalized his wives, so I got rid of that.”

Mrs. Fletcher told me a great deal about you…she has told me you are a vicious, violent man, a liar and a cheat, and that she left your bed and board because she absolutely couldn’t stand you anymore. She did not abandon you. She escaped with her life.”

“Vicious and violent. Bullshit. One night I stepped on the cat’s tail.”

“You pitched the cat through the window of your seventh floor apartment.”

“The whole place smelled of cat.”

“Mrs. Fletcher, thinking reasonably that she might be the next one through the window, packed and left.”

“Nonsense. She didn’t smell. She was always in the shower. She washed her hair every half hour.”

Adapting means adding, and Bergman did that as well. “I gave him ticks which I thought would help define his character, like making him a Laker fan, and would create a certain short-hand history and texture,” he says. “I also combined the two seperate plot lines. Very little of McDonald’s dialogue made the transition. Everyone’s rhythmn is different; mine is different than his. He was writing something to be read, I was writing a performance piece.”

Shortly after Bergman turned in his script, he was called away to direct his screenplay for “Big Trouble,” a comedy starring Alan Arkin and Peter Falk. So when rewrites were needed, the producers were forced to find someone else.

They went to Belson first, who did some retouching, and then to Phil Alden Robinson, who had just written the Steve Martin comedy “All of Me” for Universal.

“The screenplay is different from the book,” Robinson agrees. “The studio felt strongly about making a good Chevy Chase movie. Fans expect a certain style from his movies.

Chevy came up with a lot of great dialogue people are going to love hearing him say. I think Hollywood vaults are loaded with bad, loyal adaptations. No one wants to do something counter to what made the ‘Fletch’ book so wonderful. We’re staying true to the spirit of the book. This won’t be National Lampoon’s ‘Fletch’.”

Robinson read the Bergman/Belson draft, met with the cast and production staff and wrote a draft. Then, in consultation with Chase, he wrote another. “He is not some Hollywood guy doing a star turn. He has thought very carefully about ‘Fletch’ and the story,” Robinson says. “An actor will always make changes with you or without you. The smart actors will tell the writer their suggestions and together, you figure out how to make them work. That’s how it was with Chevy and it was wonderful.”

Complications arose on the “Big Trouble” set and Bergman stepped down as director, thereby becoming available again for any ‘Fletch’ rewrites needed once the film began shooting.

“Now that the film is shooting, it’s sort of been like dial-a-joke,” says Bergman. “I hope McDonald likes the script.”

He does. “They are being quite faithful,” McDonald says.”Ofcourse there are changes. There have to be changes. They seem very respectful of the book and Chevy absolutely fits my vision of Fletch. I think if you were to hold a national election, Chevy Chase would be the one Fletch readers would chose as Fletch.”

“We’ve carefully maintained the spirit and humor of ‘Fletch,” Douglas adds. “Greg is pleased with the integrity that is there. I know I wouldn’t tolerate a slapstick, goofy Fletch.”

Chase is signed for a sequel, so if the film turns out to be a hit, the adventures of the wise-cracking, irrevernt reporter could continue as a motion picture series. McDonald, meanwhile, intends to do some tinkering with his creation.

“There will be nine Fletch books total, with ‘Fletch and the Widow Bradley’ at one end and ‘Fletch and the Man Who’ on the other,” he says. “That will chart Fletch as he grows from a rather naive anti-authoritatian to where he is suddenly protecting the establishment and joining it.”