Interview with Director Greg Mottola (Confess, Fletch)

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Podcast in the random world.
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The only podcast.
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Ultimate.
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Your ultimate score.
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Everything.
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And it's bigger order.
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Live.
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Forever.
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Forever.
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They don't shower much.
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This is Fletchcast.
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Thank you, Sammy, and welcome everybody to the premier week episode of Fletchcast.
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And even though the movie's red carpet took place last week, you can still feel the pageantry and the excitement exuding from the West Hollywood Edition Hotel where it took place.
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You can still smell the celebrity.
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Smells like Brian Cranston.
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Well, because I didn't smell it.
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And it was a podcast, it wasn't TV.
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But before we get any further, I'd like to introduce my co-hosts, two men who are so full of holes, they whistle while they walk.
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Jake and Big Bob boys, in the last 33 years, we've never been closer to a Fletch movie coming out.
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Now I'm sure we each of us have something very special planned for Premier Night.
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Jake, what do you have planned this Friday?
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Well, right now, I'm hoping on a Friday afternoon to see it in the movie theater.
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I have never seen a Fletch movie in the movie theater, so I will be there uh day one.
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We were lucky, I guess we can announce that we have seen it already.
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Uh, we were lucky enough to uh have a um a screener of it.
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That was very nice uh to see that ahead of time.
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But to see it on the big screen, that's what I'm gonna be doing.
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What about you?
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Well, getting to the movies is a little tough for me because we have young kids.
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Right, right.
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But at the same time, there's nothing more romantic than a flash movie.
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So we'll probably put them to bed early, pop open a couple bottles of Don Perignon.
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Right.
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And she'll be asleep usually within the first two to three minutes of the movie.
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I'll make myself dinner.
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Some lobster door as well.
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Then I'll proceed to watch it two, three, four times in a row after that.
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Bob, what do you got going on?
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And and keep it tight because joining us in just a little bit is a director of Confess Fletch.
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Now, if you're listening to this podcast, you know who he is.
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Greg Matolib will be joining us on the show.
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But go ahead, what do you what do you got planned?
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I I got big plans.
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Um going to the movies, uh, but after you know, from five o'clock I'll probably go.
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I want to see that John and Margaret were unavailable uh until the evening.
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We normally love matinees, but uh, we're still gonna get in the matinee price at five o'clock.
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Uh tickets are bought, and uh yeah.
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Okay, we're gonna have to get back to the story.
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Greg Matolo, welcome to Fletchcast.
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Hey guys, hey, there he is.
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Now, you are somebody that we have been anticipating speaking to since episode one.
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And we finally got here.
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So let me be first to say thank you so much for everything you've done to befriend this podcast and give us little tidbits of information here and there.
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It meant the world to us.
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And to be speaking to you today, we are absolutely thrilled.
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But the question is, how are you feeling with Confessed Fletch just a few days away?
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Well, you know, I mean, I'm a little nervous talking to you guys because you've lived this Fletch mania for so long.
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But I like I said a second ago to Jim, uh, he was an incredible resource for me using his website to to find out more about the Fletch, the Fletch verse.
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Because uh, that's one of the first places I went for research.
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Oh wow.
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Uh, in you know, finding out the history of the books and the history of the almost Fletch movies and all that.
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I got a lot of good stuff from you.
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Thank you.
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No, that that makes me feel good.
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You're a fantastic resource for anybody who's uh endeavoring to try and do Fletch.
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That's very cool.
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Thank you.
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But ultimately, you have to be feeling good about the final result of the Fletch film that you guys made.
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Um, you know, I I am feeling good, but I think appropriately nervous um because the original Fletch in particular looms large over uh lovers of comedy, lovers of Chevy, lovers of the books.
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And we, for better or worse, decided to go a slightly different way, which I'd like to believe is a little closer to the tone of the books.
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Um, but we had to, you know, we changed things from that too.
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So we did our own version.
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I guess this is my way of saying for anyone who's mad that we made a Fletch movie without Chevy, um, other people can make Fletch movies too.
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Sure.
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I mean, look, look at how many uh of Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe novels attached to it.
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Absolutely.
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Um, you know, from Humphrey Bogart and Alan Ladd to James Garner and and and Elliot Gould have all played Philip Marlowe.
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There's probably between TV and movies, about 15 actors.
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I think thinking about the movies that almost got made, you know, they all didn't didn't get made for their own reasons, but I do wonder how much the shadow of the original movie uh hangs over it.
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So John and I, John Hamm and I tried to break the curse, and maybe we'll be terribly punished for it.
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Hopefully not.
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So well, the reviews so far are you know pretty good, actually.
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I mean, like the early reviews are really, really good.
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They from what I have read, it seems like there is that nice little balance.
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You know, there's some winks and nods to the original, and the kind of, like you said, kind of blazing your own path forward.
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And I think that's where uh I think that's the the direction that it needs to go.
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I really do.
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Well, one way we were able to break the fletch curse was to accept that we had to make this film on a pretty small scale um quickly.
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And and that was daunting to me because, you know, I don't know what the budget of the original fletch was, but I'm sure it was it was commensurate to a comedy star, you know, studio film of the period, that they had, I bet they had more days than we did.
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I can't imagine they had they had fewer.
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And so, you know, by nature, the scale of the movie is not gigantic.
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Um, uh, there was a pandemic going on that limited us in a lot of ways.
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Uh luckily I had this idea that when Fletch gets to the newsroom where his old friend Frank is now the editor of this of the Boston Sentinel, um, it's half empty uh because everyone's working from home.
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I love that, yeah.
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Post-pandemic.
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It also helped with our our pandemic um rules for how many extras you could have in this space and how much extras cost.
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I mean, we were trying to find every way to make this movie uh and and and get it as much as we could on the screen uh for the for the amount we had.
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The cool thing was Miramax was like, here's the amount you have to make it for, then we're gonna leave you alone.
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And they really did.
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So, for better or worse, they have.
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I've I've tried not to look at the reviews too much.
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I've noticed that some of the reviews that really don't like it, I feel are people who are, you know, they're not gonna accept that it's not as much like the original.
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And and that's and that's fair enough.
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I mean, it it's the it's a taste thing.
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I I I love the original.
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Uh, but John and I said, you know, him, John trying to do a Chevy impersonation is not gonna work.
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And um anyone out there, any Gen Zers who haven't seen the original, you should see it.
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Um, and the sequel.
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They're great.
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The first is an absolute home run, the second is just tons of great laughs, and uh, and you know, I hope I hope we didn't besmirch the the uh the flesh legacy.
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Well, we were lucky enough to get a screener thanks to you, and we all really enjoyed the movie.
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Thank God.
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We are the biggest critics when it comes to Fletch.
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You either love Fletch because you're a Chevy Chase fan, or you love the character of Fletch.
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And if you love the character of Fletch, you're gonna absolutely love this movie.
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Well, one of the things I noticed in in because I have to confess, I hadn't read the books when I was younger.
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I had always heard of them, I heard they were great.
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I love detective novels, I love Chandler and Hammett and Elmore Leonard and a bunch of other people, and and I love detective movies.
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That genre is one of my favorites.
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Uh, and I was like, I gotta get around to those books, they're supposed to be fantastic, but I hadn't.
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And then John came to me one day and said, Miramax owns the rights to all of the fletch books except for the first one.
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And they've approached me about making one.
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And he said, What they don't know is that when the first one came out, I immediately went to the library to find out something out about the book it was based on.
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I saw in the credits based on a book.
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I wanted to get the book.
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Then I found out there were other books.
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So John went to Walden Books and stole whatever existing fletch books were on the shelf.
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He shoplifted the rest of the fletch books, whatever they were, how many would had come out by 85, I guess that was, and uh, and loved them.
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And he loved any and he saw, oh, I'm learning about how films work.
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You don't necessarily, when you're adapting something, you can change it and it and in good ways or bad ways, or it's different.
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And he could he saw the differences between the tone of the novels and the tone of Chevy's uh version.
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Now, one of the things I absolutely adore about Chevy's version is that he's kind of like all the Marx brothers rolled into one when he comes into a room.
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He just befuddles people, he confuses them by being so absurd and yet straightfaced at the same time that they don't really know what's going on.
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He he makes their brains freeze up, and that's how he gets over on them.
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He he's just constantly fooling people, even though he's saying nonsense, sometimes he's saying words that you know, or names that don't exist, as we all know.
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Right.
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Um, and and that chaos he creates, you know, when I was saw as a young man, it was one of the funniest things I'd ever seen.
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Um, and I love that.
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But you know, when John told me about this, I immediately went and and read like five or six of the books, and I love them.
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And I did see, oh, they're not, he's not that's not quite what the character is in the box.
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I mean, he's he fools people, he lies, he he uses fake names, um, and and he, you know, is foolish at times, and he's the smartest guy in the room, but maybe not quite as smart as he thinks he is.
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And you know, so many things are baked into the DNA of the Chevy version, but there were there were differences.
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So John and I sat a long time to talk about what you know what's another way to go about doing this, uh, even though it runs the risk of pissing off people who love the original.
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Where did you make the decision, or when did you make the decision to do Confess uh out of these novels?
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I mean, I love Confess, it is one of my favorites between that and Fortune and the original, probably my three favorites.
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But why confess?
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Well, John said, he said, read it, read style, you know, read more than one, but confess is the one I'm thinking we should do.
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And in fact, he already had a screenwriter, uh Zev Barrow, starting to work on Confess.
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But he said, you know, it doesn't have to be Confess, we could change our minds.
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Miramax has got them all.
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But when I read it, I thought, well, what helps is like John is obviously not the age that Fletch is in the novels, he's older.
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And um, and it's interesting that Gregory McDonald decided in book two to already have Fletch be retired from investigative reporting.
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Um, and he gets kind of sucked back into the world of solving, as in most Fletch books, two mysteries at once.
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He doesn't ever like to do anything simple.
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Um, both Fletch and Gregory McDonald.
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And uh and and I thought, well, that kind of makes sense that he's a guy coming out of a sort of retirement that kind of works with an older actor playing Fletch.
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And I thought the the sort of um you know, waspy world of old money in Boston um was a really interesting contrast to the sunny sands of Santa Monica in the in the first book and the first movie that's so Southern California and the movie has just soaks up that Southern California feel.
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This would feel you know quite different.
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Um uh and in my mind, I always, you know, not that it really we had a couple of references that we ended up not using, and I can let you guys in on those.
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But I in my mind, I imagine the whole Alan Stanwyck story happened to our version of Fletch too.
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It's just uh it was probably just a different year than because of John's age.
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But anyway, um, so and you know, Confess Fletch, I just thought it was so funny.
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The characters are so great.
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Um it's it's a side of Fletch, you're seeing some other things about him that you didn't see in the first book necessarily.
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And um one thing I started to notice reading the book is that Fletch has a kind of affection for oddballs, and you know, people who are on the fringes or disenfranchised or just weird, as long as they're authentic.
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He likes he might like a rich person if they're authentic.
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He likes authentic people, or at least fun people.
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Um, he also dislikes assholes and phonies and and bullies, and he's very happy to fuck with them.
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Um, and I thought, uh, you know, this can't this book has some of those characters.
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So what happened next was that I agreed with John.
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Uh Zev, who's a very funny good writer, um, was off working on a version.
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He gave us an outline, he changed more of the book than I expected.
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He was using not that much of the book at all.
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Uh, but you know, I wanted to let him write his version.
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So he went off and wrote it, and he was sending me scenes.
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I thought, well, it's a little broader than John and I imagined, but it's you know, it's funny.
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He's writing funny stuff.
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When he finally turned it in, John and I felt like this is a great hilarious script for Chevy, but it's not the book really, and it's not what he and I have been talking about.
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Um so I took some of uh Zev's innovations, like he he put in scenes in Italy.
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Um he changed, you know, and this is the biggest change, and we'll talk at more length about it.
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Flynn, we weren't allowed to use.
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Sure.
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He created um an African-American detective who had a female sidekick.
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I I kind of reworked those characters completely, but I liked the the basic premise of them.
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Um, and uh, but he didn't use like the next door neighbor lady who and turned into you know the the lush who was in love with the owner of the apartment where the murder was.
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He uh and I turned her obviously into Annie Moomalo as the batshit insane neighbor.
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She was great.
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Yeah, she was great in it.
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He didn't he didn't have characters like that in it, and and I thought, well, that's kind of a missed opportunity.
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I felt like there weren't enough suspects for the murder, and and you know, I knew some things just bringing it to 2022 weren't necessarily gonna work.
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If you want, we could start talking about the differences between the book and the movie, because this sort of naturally leads to that.
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The Flynn character is obviously something that's probably uh, you know, that's the biggest one.
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I mean, when I was when I first got involved, I said to John, how do we tackle Flynn?
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It's this amazing character.
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Their relationship is the heart of the book, and our producer told us we don't have the rights to Flynn.
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The the estate has kept those rights separate with the hopes of someone someday doing Flynn series, and uh which would be amazing.
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Um, and I was and I was bummed because I thought this is you know such a huge part of this book.
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It's a ton of the charm of the book is that relationship.
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But I do have to say at the same time, as I was trying to get my head around Flynn, I thought it's a tricky thing to bring Flynn into 2021 because his whole backstory took place in World War II.
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So that would be he'd have to be a hundred years old or whatever.
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Um and and the backstory, as amazing as it is, and how wonderful it is in the novel, it's a little harder to pull off in a movie, especially if you're trying to keep your movie to 90 minutes, because it isn't really telling the plot.
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It's it's one of those like great digressions that that whole Flynn chapter is such a wonderful, delightful digression.
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Um but it isn't really the story of the movie, it's it's it's it's its own thing.
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Um, so not say it couldn't be done.
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It could be done.
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I think you'd have to make the movie two hours and you'd have to figure out, you know, the modern day version of Flynn.
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And I and I my worry was that would he seem like to people who don't know the book, like some some kind of anachronistic Irish cop like the ones you used to see in Bugs Bunny cartoons, you know?
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Uh like like uh Irish cops, they you know, with accents, do they still exist?
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You know, in old movies they do, but uh move it along.
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But you were able to add a lot of Flynn's qualities to row.
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Absolutely, yes, but let's not lean into that too much because I might get sued.
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Good point.
00:17:25.279 --> 00:17:26.000
No, no, I'm kidding.
00:17:26.400 --> 00:17:32.640
Yeah, uh, but he is an inspector, you know, and he is slow-mo, so he's not reluctant, but he's slow-mo.
00:17:32.799 --> 00:17:33.279
So there's yeah.
00:17:33.519 --> 00:17:34.079
Right, exactly.
00:17:34.160 --> 00:17:37.440
I I was told I used reluctant once, and they said, Don't do that.
00:17:37.599 --> 00:17:45.920
Um and no, it's like I thought, well, the great thing about it, and in fact, the biggest regret I have is I forgot to write the line.
00:17:46.160 --> 00:17:47.599
Well, this will give too much away.
00:17:47.680 --> 00:17:51.039
There's a line that in a few weeks we'll talk about.
00:17:51.359 --> 00:17:51.519
Okay.
00:17:52.000 --> 00:17:58.240
There's there's a Flynn story point that I did not underline that in all of trying to make it work, I somehow slipped my mind.
00:17:58.319 --> 00:18:01.359
And and only when the movie was over, I hit myself in the head.
00:18:01.599 --> 00:18:11.279
But yes, I did I did steal some of those qualities because you know, even just the fact that Flynn had a newborn, and in my early passes on the script, I didn't do that much with it.
00:18:11.359 --> 00:18:14.640
I just sort of made him complain about having not getting enough sleep.
00:18:14.720 --> 00:18:20.960
And and uh John showed the script to Robert Carlock, who's the creator of 30 Rock, very, very funny dude.
00:18:21.119 --> 00:18:25.599
Um, and John's been on 30 Rock and their pals, and and he just you know gave me a few notes.
00:18:25.680 --> 00:18:27.200
And one of them was like, you should do more with that.
00:18:27.279 --> 00:18:28.960
That's a funny character thing.
00:18:29.119 --> 00:18:40.880
So, like the idea of him being at work, not having any uh you know, childcare and having his his little infant strapped to his chest with the badge on his on the baby's butt was all stuff that came out of that suggestion.
00:18:40.960 --> 00:18:59.920
And I thought, okay, that's different than Flynn, but the spirit of of the warmth of the character, um, the intelligence of the character, and the fact that he doesn't just rush to judgment, which is which is not what I think Fletch would expect from a cop because he's not the biggest lover of authority.
00:19:00.160 --> 00:19:19.359
Um, the way I try to explain Fletch to people who don't know him that well, and and the version we went after is that he is on the side of right, but he thinks, you know, institutions like the police and the justice system move too slowly or flawed, often fail.
00:19:19.599 --> 00:19:27.359
Um, so I'm just gonna break some laws and lie to a bunch of people and solve this thing while there's time to catch the bad guy.
00:19:27.519 --> 00:19:37.920
Um, and you know, it's it's a kind of it's a it's a kind of value system, and it's it's delightful that he's also the kind of guy, and that this I took directly from the book.
00:19:38.160 --> 00:19:44.000
The circumstances were slightly different, but the fact that he gets things wrong, um, he's not always right.
00:19:44.160 --> 00:19:49.920
He his some of his theories uh that he's starting to become pretty certain about he finds out are dead wrong.
00:19:50.079 --> 00:19:57.920
But he's not the kind of person who would like argue or be embarrassed or you know fight for his side of it.
00:19:58.000 --> 00:20:01.599
He would just shrug and say, Okay, well then let's move on and find the right answer.
00:20:01.839 --> 00:20:11.200
He's you know, his unflappability, you know, I didn't put it in the movie, but there's that the whole section where he's trying to help um his editor write the story about an arson.
00:20:11.440 --> 00:20:11.599
Right.
00:20:11.759 --> 00:20:12.000
Yeah.
00:20:12.160 --> 00:20:17.359
And he develops this very specific theory about who the arsonist is, and he's 100% wrong about it.
00:20:17.839 --> 00:20:20.559
It's just I I just something about that I loved so much.
00:20:20.720 --> 00:20:31.920
And then I thought, well, this also helps me a lot because if I made a movie where John Hamm was 100% correct every second of the film, that would really be obnoxious.
00:20:32.400 --> 00:20:34.000
Can't be handsome and infallible.
00:20:34.160 --> 00:20:35.599
Yeah, we don't get to be John Hamm.
00:20:35.680 --> 00:20:37.599
It's like, oh, and you're right all the time, too.
00:20:37.920 --> 00:20:38.960
No fuck yourself.
00:20:39.519 --> 00:20:45.119
Um so anyway, the Flynn thing, yeah, that was that was that was bad news when I first heard that.
00:20:45.200 --> 00:20:49.599
So I tried I tried to do my best to take some of the spirit of it.
00:20:49.759 --> 00:20:52.880
Um, and I obviously I changed the relationship with his underling.
00:20:53.599 --> 00:20:55.839
I thought about sticking to what was in the book.
00:20:55.920 --> 00:20:59.119
Uh what was the name of the character, even though it wasn't uh Grover.
00:20:59.680 --> 00:21:00.079
Grover.
00:21:00.559 --> 00:21:03.519
I tried to yeah, Grover, whose new real name wasn't Grover.
00:21:03.680 --> 00:21:23.119
Um, I thought about that, but um Zav had written a really sort of hard ass young detective, female detective, and I'd change it into uh you know the the neophyte character who uh Fletch likes but is going to you know mess with the whole movie.
00:21:23.279 --> 00:21:27.039
Um I just thought that would be a fun, a fun runner to make her.
00:21:28.079 --> 00:21:28.319
Yeah.
00:21:28.640 --> 00:21:35.440
I'll tell you, I'll tell you when we all you know watched it and we all were like, okay, well, what did everybody think?
00:21:35.599 --> 00:21:36.720
We all loved Grizz.
00:21:36.880 --> 00:21:39.920
Grizz sort of whole the movie with her.
00:21:40.079 --> 00:21:41.359
I mean, she really is great.
00:21:41.680 --> 00:21:45.759
Yeah, she's kind of the warmth of the movie in her own in her own way.
00:21:45.920 --> 00:21:55.119
I mean, she's like the you know, you end up rooting for her, even though you know you want Fletch to do his fleshy stuff, but but you know, you also want her to have a victory.
00:21:55.279 --> 00:21:57.839
And Aiden, the actress, did such a wonderful job.
00:21:57.920 --> 00:21:59.839
Um yeah, not only her back and forth.
00:22:00.319 --> 00:22:05.440
With Fletch with the whole movie, but also her kind of comedic chemistry with Roy Wood Jr.
00:22:05.839 --> 00:22:16.319
And I love Roy Wood, and Roy Roy played it like he really approached this like a serious actor, not like a comic who's gonna just try and improv his way through the whole part and be in a different movie.
00:22:16.400 --> 00:22:26.559
He really, you know, he's very funny, but he's also very, you know, contained, um, as as at least how I saw the character, and and uh I felt he nailed that.
00:22:26.640 --> 00:22:29.759
So it was, yeah, it that was a great combo to have.
00:22:30.079 --> 00:22:39.119
So when we were talking about so differences, so and you mentioned earlier about in the in this world, you know, the original movie kind of did exist.
00:22:39.200 --> 00:22:44.400
Is that why you decided to bring Frank over and replace the Jack Saunders character?
00:22:45.119 --> 00:22:51.440
Yes, I think also, you know, the fantasy, and I'm knocking on wood, is that we get to do another.
00:22:51.680 --> 00:23:02.319
And I thought if we get to do another, because because there are those two editors that appear in various books, yes, that we could merge them and make them one guy and then get John Slattery, who I love.
00:23:02.799 --> 00:23:03.519
He was hilarious.
00:23:03.759 --> 00:23:05.759
Oh my god, great shorthand with John.
00:23:06.240 --> 00:23:10.000
Yeah, I thought, well, if we can get them both in it, that's great.
00:23:10.240 --> 00:23:15.039
Um, and uh, you know, if I get if I get Slattery back, I I'd be so thrilled.
00:23:15.119 --> 00:23:20.640
And so we just decided, well, they're probably not gonna let us make all of them.
00:23:20.720 --> 00:23:27.039
So let's let's hope that they make let us make two and at least have one recurring character.
00:23:27.359 --> 00:23:32.079
Um and uh yeah, so that was that was the thinking behind that.
00:23:32.160 --> 00:23:49.839
And the thinking behind Lucy Punch's character, who is the ex-wife of the guy who owns the apartment where the where a dead body is found, which is giving away nothing because it's the first minute of the film, um, is in the book, she's left her husband for another woman.
00:23:50.079 --> 00:23:57.119
And it's it's not that I think we're less accepting of gay female characters.
00:23:57.359 --> 00:24:16.240
The only the only concern was not being able to do justice to the character to because you know, a movie is shorter, you can't give enough screen time, and it coming across a little bit like, oh, it's you know, Fletch actually ends up suspecting that character of being the murderer.
00:24:16.319 --> 00:24:25.519
And I thought, well, if we go that direction, does it seem a little unintentionally weird that he's he's having all these bad negative thoughts about uh a lesbian?
00:24:25.759 --> 00:24:26.079
Right.
00:24:26.240 --> 00:24:30.160
It will it come, you know, will I will I miss, you know, will I botch it?
00:24:30.319 --> 00:24:31.839
Is basically what I was thinking.
00:24:32.000 --> 00:24:34.720
And I thought, you know, the it's it's a story.
00:24:34.880 --> 00:24:53.119
I mean, I love that McDonald wrote about people from all walks of life and that he was very accepting of different sexualities and oh yes, don't want to give the end of a away to one of his novels, but there's a huge surprise in one of them that's something that I don't think many anyone was writing about at that time.
00:24:53.359 --> 00:25:12.160
And so that was, you know, I went back and forth with that idea, and I thought, well, if I'm gonna take McDonald's idea that he likes to work in a little bit of social satire commentary into it, and and it's not necessarily gonna be the same 1970s things that he's talking about, but try and make it relevant to today.
00:25:12.240 --> 00:25:41.200
I had this idea that what if that character is the sort of influencer type, the sort of white privileged woman who uh whose brand is beauty and elegance and you know, eating the best food and living your best life, all of things that require you to be super fucking rich, and has, you know, has no sense of the disparity between her life and people who don't have money, because that's I guess a pet peeve of mine in the in this in the social media world.
00:25:41.359 --> 00:25:41.920
Mine too.
00:25:42.000 --> 00:25:48.319
Uh and and I thought, well, that'd be a fun thing to send up because uh I I had an idea for how John could fuck with her.
00:25:48.480 --> 00:25:59.440
And my plan in that scene was like, instead of just sort of leading her on so she make a fool of himself, I just thought he should just go in there and be even more shallow and awful than she is.
00:25:59.680 --> 00:26:06.720
And then she would really be confused by the fact that, like, oh, I mean, I'm terrible, but this guy's really bad.
00:26:06.960 --> 00:26:08.640
And that would really throw her off.
00:26:09.039 --> 00:26:11.519
And John obviously had a lot of fun playing that scene.
00:26:11.680 --> 00:26:21.680
That's the reasoning behind changing that character, who is a great character in the novel, and that the scene in the novel where he interviews her under uh false pretenses is a great one.
00:26:22.400 --> 00:26:28.079
Greg, how much how much access did you have to the original movie material?
00:26:28.160 --> 00:26:36.079
And how how did you decide how much you wanted to weave in uh to sort of bridge the gap between your version and the original movies?
00:26:36.559 --> 00:26:45.920
Well, first of all, because you guys are true believers, I'll let you in on the little homage moments to the original Fletch that we ended up not doing, and I'll tell you why.
00:26:46.160 --> 00:26:52.960
One was, of course, a reference to The Underhills that was going to come in the first few minutes of the movie.
00:26:53.200 --> 00:27:02.880
And the Mirimax lawyer told us you can't use that name because in the first novel, I think the name is mentioned in karaoke fletch.
00:27:02.960 --> 00:27:09.359
So we were basically allowed to say anything that was in any of the Fletch books, but except if it was only exclusively in the first one.
00:27:09.759 --> 00:27:12.240
But on top of that, in the first novel, the name was Underwood.
00:27:12.319 --> 00:27:14.559
Yes, and they changed it in the movies to Under Hill.
00:27:14.640 --> 00:27:17.279
So it was like, shit, we can't do that.
00:27:17.359 --> 00:27:19.200
And I really wanted to do that.
00:27:19.440 --> 00:27:27.119
Um, just you know, as a way of like, besides the Laker hat, obviously being because that's that's something from the movie, not from the books.
00:27:27.279 --> 00:27:37.119
Um, I wanted to, you know, salute Chevy and the original and and my own love for it, and the fact that that movie ends talking about the underhills.
00:27:37.359 --> 00:27:39.680
I wanted to start this one talking about we couldn't do it.
00:27:39.839 --> 00:27:41.839
The other one is more ridiculous.
00:27:42.000 --> 00:27:53.920
Uh, when Fletch goes to the yacht club and there happens to be a clan bait going on, there's this great uh kind of swing band called The Hot Sardines, who I've seen live a bunch of times, and I asked them to to play themselves in the movie.
00:27:54.240 --> 00:28:00.240
I had them one of there was a moment where um they're playing Moon River.
00:28:01.039 --> 00:28:09.200
That was meant to be like if you get it, if you really get the joke, um that's for you.
00:28:09.440 --> 00:28:18.000
But then in post-production, we were talking about the fact that we were over budget on our music, and they said, Will you please give up Moon River?
00:28:18.240 --> 00:28:19.759
Because it costs too much.
00:28:20.319 --> 00:28:25.599
And so, yeah, so that joke had to go, unfortunately.
00:28:25.759 --> 00:28:33.759
That one that one makes me sad because because I really wanted that for the damn you, Mirimax for the lovers of the first movie.
00:28:33.839 --> 00:28:38.240
Uh, because it was such a stupid, stupid way to reference it by actually playing the song.
00:28:38.559 --> 00:28:42.400
Now, one thing we were all kind of holding our breath for was the theme.
00:28:42.559 --> 00:28:47.759
Was that ever a possibility uh to be able to use the Fletch's Harold Fultemeyer theme?
00:28:48.079 --> 00:28:59.759
We we explored the idea of one of um Kyle McLachlan plays a character, uh, he's an art dealer named Haran who's uh into EDM electronic dance music.
00:28:59.839 --> 00:29:07.440
And we were we explored the idea of doing an EDM version of the of the Fletch theme for him to be dancing to.
00:29:07.680 --> 00:29:11.039
Um, once again, that fell by the wayside of budget.
00:29:11.279 --> 00:29:22.400
Um, and and you know, the idea of scoring the whole movie, or you know, trying to contact Harold Faltermeyer or work with a composer who would work with him sort of the way they did the new Top Gun.
00:29:22.480 --> 00:29:27.920
I mean, they used a lot of his score and then they used a lot of new score and adapted of his stuff.
00:29:28.079 --> 00:29:44.960
The reason ultimately we decided not to try too hard for that, and the same reason we didn't beg Chevy to be in it, is that we thought we should just try to do our own thing and not rest on the laurels of another movie.
00:29:45.200 --> 00:29:52.319
Um, I you know that score is fantastic, it's obviously very period specific.
00:29:52.480 --> 00:29:56.960
I there's part of me that wishes I I actually just experimented and tried cutting to it just to see what it felt like.
00:29:57.039 --> 00:29:58.559
I should have seen that, done that.
00:29:58.720 --> 00:30:22.000
But I just felt like it's I didn't want it to turn too much into a nostalgia thing because I sometimes am disappointed when I watch something that's meant to evoke, you know, remake of something from the 80s, and and and it's like, well, the magic isn't there, it's it's not this, you know, it's it's a different animal, and then you're sort of stuck, I you're sort of neither fish nor foul.
00:30:22.160 --> 00:30:26.319
You're neither the first movie nor you the your own new thing.
00:30:26.640 --> 00:30:43.680
Um, I think the example I use is the fact that Humphrey Bogart played Philip Marlowe uh in The Big Sleep in the 40s, and oh 27 years later, Elliot Gould played Philip Marlowe in The Long Goodbye, and that's you know, 27 years apart.
00:30:43.839 --> 00:30:46.000
I mean, the world changed faster back then.
00:30:46.319 --> 00:30:48.880
Fletch, the original Fletch was 37 years ago.
00:30:49.119 --> 00:30:55.519
Um, first of all, sadly, there are young people who don't know the original Fletch, and if they're listening, they should watch it.
00:30:55.599 --> 00:30:56.559
And I repeat.
00:30:56.799 --> 00:31:07.279
But uh, you know, you never say never, you never know, Moon River or the original Halter Faltermeyer score mape period in the sequel, if they let us make one.
00:31:07.440 --> 00:31:10.240
Because uh I don't mind I don't mind Easter eggs.
00:31:10.319 --> 00:31:16.319
I just I just start to get frustrated when movies have too many Easter eggs when it's just too much fan service.
00:31:16.559 --> 00:31:17.680
All right, then there's still hope.
00:31:17.920 --> 00:31:21.920
The Coming to America sequel was almost like overkill with Easter eggs.
00:31:22.079 --> 00:31:24.960
So there was a balance that we talked about going into this movie.
00:31:25.119 --> 00:31:39.119
One of the things that we that we were talking about, you know, is uh part of such a big part of the original movies was the overnarration that Chevy did in the Fletch character uh of all of his you know, everything that was gonna happen in the movie, he would talk about it.
00:31:39.279 --> 00:31:44.400
Was that considered at all for this, or did you decide more or less to go a different way with your with your Fletch version?
00:31:44.720 --> 00:31:53.680
Well, I I read an interview with Chevy from God Knows When, where he talked about basically the the narration was to help shorten the film.
00:31:53.839 --> 00:32:00.720
They didn't plan on doing narration, but the movie was too long and they wanted to get it down to a nice crisp 95 minutes comedy length.
00:32:00.880 --> 00:32:09.839
And so, in cutting scenes out, and I know you guys are well aware of the material that's been cut out and and how often people ask you, when am I gonna get to see it?
00:32:10.400 --> 00:32:13.519
And it's like, yeah, we don't get to see it.
00:32:13.759 --> 00:32:22.000
Um, but uh so that's my understanding is that that was that was to help uh tell the story with the with the missing pieces gone.
00:32:22.160 --> 00:32:33.119
Um, and when I felt the early cut of Fletch felt too long, we discussed, okay, did we fix this by um using voiceover?
00:32:33.279 --> 00:32:40.720
And it is a classic, you know, detective story film noir technique, um, which is part of the charm in the original fletch.
00:32:40.799 --> 00:32:52.720
But I thought once again, to keep it feeling our own thing, if we can get it to a uh a satisfying length and not feel like it's over staying its welcome.
00:32:52.880 --> 00:32:55.920
Um, without it, let's try.
00:32:56.160 --> 00:32:58.559
Um, you know, sometimes voiceover feels like a crutch.
00:32:58.640 --> 00:33:00.000
I love it in the original fletch.
00:33:00.079 --> 00:33:01.440
It's funny voiceover.
00:33:01.920 --> 00:33:08.400
It gives the ending, you know, it gives the ending its the last big smile you have leaving the theater.
00:33:08.640 --> 00:33:12.640
Um so uh but we ultimately, yeah, we thought about it.
00:33:12.880 --> 00:33:17.759
I even wrote a little bit and and I thought, should I call Andrew Bergman?
00:33:20.720 --> 00:33:22.079
That was the reason ultimately.
00:33:22.400 --> 00:33:25.279
What happened with the Laker hat in the uh in the trailer?
00:33:25.519 --> 00:33:29.039
You know, no one even no one even told me that they were gonna blur it out.
00:33:29.119 --> 00:33:32.640
Uh I this is this is directors don't get any respect anymore.
00:33:32.799 --> 00:33:34.559
I see the trailer and it's like, what?
00:33:34.720 --> 00:33:37.920
And I guess it has to be some kind of like it would have cost more.
00:33:38.160 --> 00:33:42.480
We got the rights to use it in the movie, but they somehow didn't clear to use it in the trailer or commercials.
00:33:42.559 --> 00:33:42.960
I don't know.
00:33:43.039 --> 00:33:50.160
I that doesn't make any sense to me, but that's what happened, and that's why there's a blurred out bid on the driver's license at the 11th hour.
00:33:50.319 --> 00:33:56.960
Someone said, Oh, the clearance department said the number on the driver's license belongs to a real person, which is accidental.
00:33:57.839 --> 00:34:12.639
And and so we fixed it in the final print that people will see, but you know, they discovered it the day before the trailer was gonna well, it was a couple of days, and they, you know, as I was talking to you, Jake, about it being delayed forever and ever and ever.
00:34:12.800 --> 00:34:34.559
And it's you know, it's part of it is this is the reality for me at least of making uh a small, medium, medium, small comedy um in the system at this moment in time where film distribution exhibition is really kind of you know a shit show.
00:34:34.639 --> 00:34:45.440
I mean, no one really knows what works anymore except for throwing a shitload of money at a tent pole film that's got a built-in audience.
00:34:45.679 --> 00:35:03.760
Um and other than that, it's all you know, it's like the kind of sleeper movies now are everything every everywhere all at once, which is an A24 movie, independent distributor, people, you know, and they do a great job with their limited resources um selling a film.
00:35:04.000 --> 00:35:14.320
And I could I could tell that, you know, we we also this film we could have aimed more at a younger audience, put in more sex jokes.
00:35:14.559 --> 00:35:16.800
I'm certainly not averse to them.
00:35:17.679 --> 00:35:24.320
They they put a roof over my head, uh, but uh, but it just didn't feel right.
00:35:24.480 --> 00:35:34.400
Um, I mean, a little bit is like, yeah, the world's a little more prudish than it was um when Super Bay came out or when Confess Fletch was written.
00:35:34.480 --> 00:35:38.000
There's more, obviously, more sex in the book than there is in our movie.
00:35:38.239 --> 00:35:51.119
Um But you know, we kind of skewed this toward an adult audience because we want to make a really dialogue-driven character film, more of a comedy of manners, as I as I feel when I read the books.
00:35:51.440 --> 00:35:59.280
I mean, one of the big differences between the approach I took versus the original movie is in the original movie, basically everyone's a straight man to Chevy.
00:35:59.760 --> 00:36:06.719
Um, I I endeavored to let you know, cast funny people and let them be funny in addition to John.
00:36:07.119 --> 00:36:12.159
Sometimes John is the straight man in a moment, and sometimes his reactions are what's funny.
00:36:12.400 --> 00:36:18.000
Um, and I and I I believe John's very funny throughout the movie, but it is a different, it is a different way at it.
00:36:18.159 --> 00:36:21.119
Um, and that's something that I felt in reading the book.
00:36:21.199 --> 00:36:25.920
I mean, certainly the countess is a funny, crazy character in the book.
00:36:26.079 --> 00:36:33.440
Um, the next door neighbor who's a lush, but Andy Moomalo's character is the replacement for, she has some very funny moments.
00:36:33.599 --> 00:36:36.639
She's sadder in the book, it's a little more emotional.
00:36:36.800 --> 00:36:47.760
Um, and and uh I even think in my early drafts, I sort of attempted that, and there just didn't seem to be space in this in the the you know, real estate for that in the movie.
00:36:47.840 --> 00:36:55.199
Um but it's one, you know, it's one of the I guess I feel like if I get to do another one of these, I'm hoping I'll have a little more time, a little more money.
00:36:55.280 --> 00:36:58.480
It'll be probably a little longer, probably a little richer.
00:36:58.800 --> 00:37:03.119
Um, and this was uh a hope that we could break the curve.
00:37:03.360 --> 00:37:08.480
Well, you kind of set it up for fortune there at the end when you went to, you know, when you mentioned, you know, Walter March.
00:37:08.719 --> 00:37:11.039
If doing another one, that would probably be the one you would do.
00:37:11.360 --> 00:37:14.639
Yeah, some in some interviews people have asked me which one would I do.
00:37:14.880 --> 00:37:17.119
Um, and I I haven't told them.
00:37:17.199 --> 00:37:22.000
And I thought I thought this is this is the one exclusive I'd give you guys is yeah.
00:37:22.079 --> 00:37:23.679
Well, Fletcher's fortune is the one.
00:37:23.760 --> 00:37:26.000
Yeah, that's the one I would I would love to adapt.
00:37:26.079 --> 00:37:44.320
And and uh the idea of putting Fletch in the middle of uh a lot of media people, some kind of journalism conference, given the age we live in and the absolute insanity of our culture and and of you know all forms of media are going a little nuts too.
00:37:44.480 --> 00:37:51.119
I just thought this is a great place for satire and and and and letting fret fletch loose to do his thing.
00:37:51.360 --> 00:37:55.599
Um, so yeah, that's that's that's my hope that I get to write that one.
00:37:55.840 --> 00:38:00.320
And that's a great opportunity for three podcasters to be an Easter egg in the background of that movie as well.
00:38:00.559 --> 00:38:01.280
Absolutely.
00:38:01.519 --> 00:38:03.440
Yes, absolutely at the convention.
00:38:03.840 --> 00:38:06.639
I would like to get I would like to get Gregory's sons in there too.
00:38:06.880 --> 00:38:09.599
There would be there would be there would be good luck charms.
00:38:09.920 --> 00:38:10.559
Yeah.
00:38:11.280 --> 00:38:14.320
Now, Greg, you you were able to get Larry into the movie.
00:38:14.480 --> 00:38:19.599
Now, what restrictions did you have regarding a character that was created for the movie?
00:38:20.000 --> 00:38:24.719
You know, I think that one might have slipped past legal.
00:38:25.199 --> 00:38:29.119
So hopefully.
00:38:29.440 --> 00:38:33.039
Well, you sort of made her a different character just named Larry.
00:38:33.360 --> 00:38:34.400
Yeah, yeah.
00:38:34.639 --> 00:38:35.039
Yes.
00:38:35.280 --> 00:38:42.880
She's a friend, and she's, you know, yeah, we wanted to make it a little more fun for her, so yeah, we let her be Larry.
00:38:42.960 --> 00:38:45.679
But uh Larry's a very common female names.
00:38:46.000 --> 00:38:47.599
Well, exactly, exactly.
00:38:47.679 --> 00:38:52.239
And it's then the great tradition of of women with male names in in many of his books.
00:38:52.480 --> 00:38:52.960
That's true.
00:38:53.119 --> 00:38:53.599
That's true.
00:38:53.760 --> 00:38:57.280
We got Andy, Larry, yeah, Bobby, Freddie.
00:38:57.679 --> 00:39:00.719
Freddie is uh is a big character, and yeah, absolutely.
00:39:00.960 --> 00:39:03.519
So uh you mentioned earlier about Chevy.
00:39:03.679 --> 00:39:08.559
I mean, was there any really serious discussions about a cameo or anything?
00:39:09.039 --> 00:39:17.199
You know, I it was what's ironic is um my first little movie I made, um, my indie film I made in the in the 90s was called The Day Trippers.
00:39:17.280 --> 00:39:20.960
And after that, I got my foot in the door and it was very helpful.
00:39:21.039 --> 00:39:25.039
And I wrote a script that uh I got set up at Sony Pictures, and I was thrilled.
00:39:25.119 --> 00:39:28.719
I'm gonna make a, you know, for them a small film, but for me a huge film.
00:39:29.039 --> 00:39:32.719
Um, you know, we made Day Trippers for like 80,000 bucks.
00:39:32.960 --> 00:39:36.639
And and there, I was gonna do like a$10 million movie at Sony.
00:39:36.880 --> 00:39:40.000
It was gonna start John Q's X D Zon and Chevy Chase.
00:39:40.320 --> 00:39:45.360
I I I did uh table reads with Chevy, I hung out with Chevy, yeah, I got notes from Chevy.
00:39:45.599 --> 00:39:48.880
I I was in pre-production, they gave us a green light.
00:39:48.960 --> 00:40:10.400
I was it was about an intervention in the south of France, like a group of old friends who find out that the sort of ringleader of their college group is it's it's sort of big chill with an intervention, it's turned into instead of dying, uh instead of their friend dying, he's just a you know, John Kuzek was gonna play this guy who had gone off the deep end, and they all go to try and save him, and everything goes sideways.
00:40:10.480 --> 00:40:19.679
And Chevy was one of playing an uncle who's one of the reasons everything goes sideways, and and he really liked the script, and we really got along, and I and I was so excited.
00:40:19.920 --> 00:40:21.920
Then Sony just decided one day, you know what?
00:40:22.079 --> 00:40:25.119
This movie's a little dark and a little small, we're gonna kill it.
00:40:25.599 --> 00:40:28.320
And I tried to get set up elsewhere, I couldn't.
00:40:28.480 --> 00:40:33.760
Um, in my contact with Chevy, uh, I never never got to talk to him again.
00:40:34.079 --> 00:40:37.119
But I had nothing, you know, I grew up loving him.
00:40:37.360 --> 00:40:41.360
I watched the first episode of SNL the day it aired.
00:40:41.519 --> 00:40:43.119
My parents somehow let me.
00:40:43.280 --> 00:40:47.599
Um, I you know, he was a huge hero to me, um, and I loved all those films.
00:40:47.679 --> 00:40:51.760
And and Fletch, like many, was my favorite Chevy Chase film.
00:40:52.000 --> 00:40:56.639
So it was very tempting to ask him to be in it.
00:40:56.880 --> 00:41:02.800
Um the problem was I just didn't feel like we had a part kind of good enough for him.
00:41:02.880 --> 00:41:08.239
Other than I wanted to just sort of trot him out to say, hey, look, we're cherry chase, we all love him.
00:41:08.320 --> 00:41:11.519
And it's and and and sort of stop the movie for that.
00:41:11.760 --> 00:41:19.760
Um if I really thought there was something that was worthy of the cameo, I probably would have asked him.
00:41:19.840 --> 00:41:21.760
I don't know who knows what he would have said.
00:41:22.079 --> 00:41:30.079
Um I don't I you know, I I hope he doesn't hate us for touching something that I know he loves.
00:41:30.320 --> 00:41:34.719
And especially because you never know, I might think of something to ask him to do in the next one.
00:41:34.880 --> 00:41:43.599
So, you know, once again, it was kind of like fan service or not do it yet.
00:41:43.920 --> 00:41:47.440
So we decided we decided not to ask him.
00:41:47.760 --> 00:41:52.800
It's got to be a part that's not distracting, you know, where you as you see him, that's all you can think about.
00:41:52.960 --> 00:41:53.199
Yeah.
00:41:53.440 --> 00:42:02.400
Yeah, I feel like it needed to be meaty enough so he could actually have a scene and become a character and not just pop up you know driving a boat or something.
00:42:02.480 --> 00:42:06.000
You know, it's like the Uber driver or something here.
00:42:07.679 --> 00:42:09.760
I mean it's right, exactly.
00:42:10.000 --> 00:42:10.559
Five stars.
00:42:10.639 --> 00:42:10.960
Five stars.
00:42:11.199 --> 00:42:12.400
That was that was that was that was John's.
00:42:12.719 --> 00:42:13.440
Five stars, five stars.
00:42:13.679 --> 00:42:28.559
Um that's you know, it's like there are definitely movies, and I don't want to put down anyone else's work, but there are definitely movies that I feel like, yeah, it's that cameo is sort of distracting or sort of makes me sad because it makes me just want to watch the original.
00:42:28.719 --> 00:42:32.000
And I'm like, well, don't leave in the middle to go watch Fletch.
00:42:32.079 --> 00:42:34.000
Finish this one and then go watch Fletch.
00:42:34.559 --> 00:42:38.719
Uh um, so anyway, yeah, that's that was the that was the thinking.
00:42:38.800 --> 00:42:43.360
Uh it was no it was no diss on Chevy whatsoever.
00:42:43.599 --> 00:42:50.480
Um people say, I know, I don't think I'm speaking out of turn to say that there's been talk on the internet that he can be difficult.
00:42:50.559 --> 00:42:51.599
I don't give a shit about that.
00:42:51.679 --> 00:42:53.760
I love the guy, I love his work.
00:42:53.920 --> 00:42:57.039
He was great to me a little bit of time I spent with him.
00:42:57.280 --> 00:43:00.960
Um, and it was a heartbreak I didn't get to make a movie with him in 1999.
00:43:01.280 --> 00:43:01.599
Yeah.
00:43:02.000 --> 00:43:16.079
There's some dialogue that it is nice that you have a little wink to the original there in the boat scene at the end of the movie, because it very much it's basically line for line the the uh the dialogue there at the end of the original.
00:43:16.239 --> 00:43:17.119
I thought that was great.
00:43:17.199 --> 00:43:25.920
Yeah, well, you know, we decided we the the Danimont in uh the novel, and it didn't bother me reading the book, I kind of liked it in the book.
00:43:26.000 --> 00:43:33.039
You basically the the the whole mystery gets solved in a it's told to you in a conversation between Flynn and Fletch.
00:43:33.119 --> 00:43:36.320
You don't it doesn't happen on the page, right?
00:43:36.480 --> 00:43:44.719
And I thought, well, that's great in a book, and it's and it's and it's ballsy, but if I did that in the movie, people would, I think, not be happy.
00:43:44.960 --> 00:43:49.599
Um, so so when I started to figure out, well, what what is the ending then?
00:43:49.760 --> 00:43:53.280
We ended up in a scene that had some similarities to the end of the first fletch.
00:43:53.360 --> 00:43:57.760
And I thought, well, that I didn't set out to make it that way.
00:43:57.920 --> 00:43:59.760
It's just the pieces fell together, and I thought, oh.
00:44:00.239 --> 00:44:04.079
This is yeah, this and it's not uh has some similarity.
00:44:04.239 --> 00:44:13.199
So so so then John and I talked about it, and and and it was actually John suggesting so what about right here if uh we use that line from the film.
00:44:13.360 --> 00:44:16.960
Um and I thought, oh that's great, you know, we love the movie.
00:44:17.119 --> 00:44:20.800
It's there's nothing there's no there's no like it bugged me.
00:44:20.880 --> 00:44:27.119
Like I love Tim Burton, but when he said he was making a new Willy Wonka movie and he was putting down the original, so he never liked it.
00:44:27.199 --> 00:44:29.440
I was like, come on, man, not to say that.
00:44:29.599 --> 00:44:31.199
Yeah, we love Gene Wilder.
00:44:31.760 --> 00:44:41.840
Come on, it's like, yeah, I know yours will be like really different, and that's cool too, but you know, I have no desire to diss Fletch, it's a kick-ass movie.
00:44:42.320 --> 00:44:50.800
John Ham had said in an interview that Bill Hader, uh, I guess was brought on to I maybe just like read over the script or come up with some ideas or whatever.
00:44:50.960 --> 00:44:57.039
He said that he actually came up with a a brilliant idea for some part of the ending that I guess you guys used.
00:44:57.119 --> 00:44:59.199
Is that something you can that is absolutely true?
00:44:59.280 --> 00:45:09.280
And it's and and I can't talk about too much without giving away uh anything, but yes, Bill had to take Bill, you know, old friend of mine and John, and we asked him to read it and give notes.
00:45:09.440 --> 00:45:13.360
And he he had basically that this one note, he said in this one scene, what if?
00:45:13.519 --> 00:45:20.480
And it just was turning it slightly, but it made it really funny in a great way and and fit perfectly.
00:45:20.639 --> 00:45:25.119
Um and so I I gladly stole that idea from Bill.
00:45:25.280 --> 00:45:37.920
I, you know, I've worked with comedy people, and I and I see that the way they work is they're constantly showing stuff to their peers, and if their peer comes up with something funny, they have no guilt taking it and claiming ownership.
00:45:38.079 --> 00:45:47.599
Um, yeah, like when Judd Appetit does table reads of screenplays, he invites all the best comedy writers in LA to come and watch, and then they sit around and talk and pitch ideas.
00:45:47.840 --> 00:45:50.000
And that's kind of a comedy thing.
00:45:50.159 --> 00:45:52.559
I mean, it's a way of kicking the tires or something.
00:45:52.639 --> 00:45:56.400
And and the truth is you end up discarding, we did it on super bad.
00:45:56.480 --> 00:46:01.679
We ended up discarding 95% of the suggestions, but the 5% we kept were good ones.
00:46:01.840 --> 00:46:07.840
Um, so we did a similar kind of thing with we did a little round table with funny people we know.
00:46:08.000 --> 00:46:16.400
I invited a writer I know from the TV show, Dave, uh Saladine Patterson, who's a great African-American comic.
00:46:16.559 --> 00:46:22.000
Um, we invited Robert Carlock and Paula Pell, who were 30 rock writers.
00:46:22.320 --> 00:46:24.639
Um we uh who else was in that?
00:46:25.039 --> 00:46:25.599
Aubrey Plaza.
00:46:25.760 --> 00:46:26.719
Um or no.
00:46:27.440 --> 00:46:34.719
Aubrey and Pan Oswald did an early table read for us uh via Zoom, and we got some help from them.
00:46:34.880 --> 00:46:42.159
And then uh yeah, there were it was uh Andy Ciara, who I'm working with on a TV version of Adventureland.
00:46:42.239 --> 00:46:49.119
Uh Andy wrote Palm Springs, which is a really hilarious movie that I bet you guys saw on Hulu.
00:46:49.360 --> 00:46:50.000
I did see it.
00:46:50.079 --> 00:46:50.880
It was great, yeah.
00:46:51.119 --> 00:46:51.760
Very funny.
00:46:52.000 --> 00:46:57.199
Um, so it was a real yeah, it was a good, it was a real murderer's row of funny people.
00:46:57.360 --> 00:47:00.960
And you know, they pitched a lot of jokes, and a lot of them were like one-liners and things like that.
00:47:01.039 --> 00:47:05.119
It's funny, but it not really necessary to the scene.
00:47:05.199 --> 00:47:06.800
I didn't want the script to get super fat.
00:47:06.960 --> 00:47:11.840
I didn't want it to, I didn't want I did for whatever reason I wanted this movie to be pretty tight.
00:47:12.000 --> 00:47:28.719
Um and and but then occasionally people would suggest an idea that would, you know, like I had said earlier, where Robert Carlock suggested the idea of of lean more into um Morris's baby thing and being exhausted all the time and and what it's like to be a new parent.
00:47:28.800 --> 00:47:32.159
And I've been there, I've got three kids, so I I know I can write that.
00:47:32.400 --> 00:47:45.280
Um, so it was, you know, stuff like that is um and I was writing, you know, working in a up to now, everything I've written has pretty much been kind of personal um from aspects of my life.
00:47:45.599 --> 00:47:55.119
And uh that was super helpful, but it's also fun when you're doing it, you're the director and the writer because you also get to say no and not use stuff you don't want to use.
00:47:55.199 --> 00:48:04.719
Like there's always a pressure just to jam in everything, um, and have a million alts to every line, but you can kind of lose the thread of the scene sometimes that way.
00:48:04.880 --> 00:48:19.280
So we found a bound, we found a balance, and also, you know, Annie Mumelo being who she is, she suggested the line where she's talking about how she inherited her her apartment from her ex-husband, and then she says, Well, he's not really my ex, he died on the toilet, but nobody wants to hear that.
00:48:19.519 --> 00:48:20.320
That's Annie.
00:48:20.400 --> 00:48:25.599
I mean, she's a great comedy writer, she co-wrote Bridesmaids, and I thought, yep, we're using that.
00:48:25.760 --> 00:48:30.960
Um we've had this discussion, like we've said to each other, like, what do we do if we hate it?
00:48:31.119 --> 00:48:32.079
Like, what do we say?
00:48:32.239 --> 00:48:35.679
You know, luckily, we did not have to cross that bridge.
00:48:35.920 --> 00:48:41.199
I, you know, I I really thought, like, yeah, I'd have to I'd end up having to write you guys a long apology.
00:48:43.840 --> 00:48:53.440
But you know, it's like my my feeling is um, you know, someone else could decide to do other versions of this, just like Philip Marlowe.
00:48:53.519 --> 00:48:57.679
I mean, down the line, why shouldn't Kevin Smith get to make his version someday?
00:48:57.840 --> 00:48:59.119
Anyway, sorry about my interruption.
00:48:59.280 --> 00:48:59.679
No, no, no.
00:48:59.840 --> 00:49:03.599
I was gonna say, speaking of crossing bridges, it I it's been my theory now.
00:49:03.760 --> 00:49:07.039
You seem like the kind of person that doesn't do things by accident.
00:49:07.519 --> 00:49:24.000
Uh, we see one scene without giving too much away, uh, where Grizz is driving in New Jersey and we're following her GPS, and it seems like her current position is the exact town where Laker Jim and I grew up in Carter, New Jersey, where she's like currently at.
00:49:24.239 --> 00:49:28.000
You know, I did the I did the Latitude Mons team, even with Staten Island.
00:49:28.079 --> 00:49:29.119
It's right there now.
00:49:29.280 --> 00:49:31.760
I'm gonna assume that that was intentional.
00:49:32.000 --> 00:49:32.559
Oh yeah.
00:49:32.800 --> 00:49:33.440
Oh yeah.
00:49:33.679 --> 00:49:35.840
Or or an Easter throwing us, right?
00:49:36.000 --> 00:49:38.960
Yeah, that's like that's like that's like a Passover egg.
00:49:39.039 --> 00:49:39.920
That's how rare that is.
00:49:40.400 --> 00:49:43.119
We'll put it on A D B as credit for us.
00:49:43.360 --> 00:49:44.400
Yeah, absolutely.
00:49:44.559 --> 00:49:49.280
Just like just like uh Jake, were you the one who caught the birthday on the driver's license?
00:49:49.599 --> 00:49:53.599
Actually, LJ and I found that together when we were breaking down the trailer.
00:49:53.840 --> 00:49:54.079
Really?
00:49:54.559 --> 00:49:56.159
I mean, like, that's a nice link.
00:49:56.320 --> 00:49:57.280
Yeah, that was great.
00:49:57.440 --> 00:49:58.719
Yeah, that was really sweet.
00:49:59.039 --> 00:50:02.320
Well, to anyone who hasn't read the books, they're such a fucking joy.
00:50:02.559 --> 00:50:06.320
They are, and they feel they feel as modern as anything.
00:50:06.480 --> 00:50:24.719
I mean, he really obviously loved Chandler and Hammett, and and like, you know, isn't and I love people like Elmore Leonard, like I said before, but he he found his own way into this kind of storytelling, his own tone that is unique and delightful.
00:50:24.880 --> 00:50:30.880
And the books are not all exactly the same, they have different styles somewhat or different different approaches.
00:50:30.960 --> 00:50:33.360
They all have some interesting things to say about society.
00:50:33.679 --> 00:50:46.719
I mean, the what you know, the I'm sure you've heard a million times the quote of his about why he likes the the genre of mystery because uh because it's so pedestrian, you can sneak in all this sort of social criticism.
00:50:46.880 --> 00:50:54.239
Uh obviously, as a human being, he was very involved in in uh just causes for justice.
00:50:54.559 --> 00:50:56.719
So we obviously have a very strong feeling about that.
00:50:56.800 --> 00:51:00.400
And you feel it in the books, but he's also you know a devilish hilarious guy.
00:51:00.639 --> 00:51:07.280
He was, and I can tell you right now that he would be very, very satisfied and and very happy with with how it turned out.
00:51:07.440 --> 00:51:10.159
I can I I know for certain he would be very happy with it.
00:51:10.480 --> 00:51:13.199
And some metaphysical universe, I hope that's true.
00:51:13.280 --> 00:51:14.880
That's that's very nice of you to say.
00:51:15.039 --> 00:51:17.039
I I'll I'll take it.
00:51:17.280 --> 00:51:20.000
I I really respect the guy a lot.
00:51:20.320 --> 00:51:24.239
We we are kind of uh I guess ignorant when it comes to the film industry.
00:51:24.639 --> 00:51:33.519
When it comes to a movie being released, and I know there's probably certain numbers you have to hit before a sequel is is green lighted.
00:51:33.599 --> 00:51:35.440
I mean, is that something that you're prevy to?
00:51:35.599 --> 00:51:36.400
Do you know about that?
00:51:36.559 --> 00:51:39.760
Is that something you are watching or because everything's not working?
00:51:39.920 --> 00:51:44.559
You know, all bets are off now in film distribution, and we're getting this sort of hybrid release.
00:51:44.800 --> 00:51:53.519
Instead of going straight to streaming or going getting a traditional release, we're getting we're I think we're at about 450 theaters starting Friday.
00:51:53.760 --> 00:51:55.360
We're on demand the same day.
00:51:55.519 --> 00:51:57.679
Even that couldn't have happened two years ago.
00:51:57.840 --> 00:52:04.719
Um, two years up to two years ago, the major chains, at least AMC, Regal, and the what other one?
00:52:04.960 --> 00:52:06.480
Cinemark maybe.
00:52:07.039 --> 00:52:10.880
Um, they wouldn't take a movie that was being released on demand the same day.
00:52:11.039 --> 00:52:20.960
They they they wanted to keep the window uh of 90 days that they've always had before a movie can be seen on a TV screen or anywhere else but on a theater screen.
00:52:21.199 --> 00:52:24.000
And the pandemic kind of you know broke everybody.
00:52:24.159 --> 00:52:29.519
It broke broke the exhibitors, it broke the business, and and everything changed.
00:52:29.599 --> 00:52:38.159
Um, so you know, Paramount is very decidedly and probably sadly wisely not spending a lot of money on promoting this movie.
00:52:38.239 --> 00:52:46.239
They want it to be a word of mouth thing and hope that people hear about it, but they're not expecting, you know, any kind of first weekend bonanza.
00:52:46.800 --> 00:52:52.000
Um to get those, you really have to, you know, spend millions upon millions of dollars.
00:52:52.239 --> 00:53:00.800
Um, even even though Super Bad was a real surprise to me, Sony really got behind it and spent a lot of money promoting that movie once they said, Oh, I think we have a hit.
00:53:01.039 --> 00:53:04.559
Uh, so it's not so much that they I think they don't like the movie.
00:53:04.639 --> 00:53:08.960
I think they just say, well, this kind of skews adult, and a lot of young people don't know who Fletch is.
00:53:09.199 --> 00:53:14.000
And you know, it's not it's not IP that is known by everybody.
00:53:14.239 --> 00:53:18.000
Uh, and it's not a super broad, dirty comedy.
00:53:18.079 --> 00:53:23.280
So it fits more on streaming, but it's good enough to be in the theater for a little bit.
00:53:23.519 --> 00:53:25.119
Um, so who knows?
00:53:25.280 --> 00:53:25.679
Who knows?
00:53:25.760 --> 00:53:26.079
I don't know.
00:53:26.159 --> 00:53:33.599
Once it gets to Showtime, I don't know what metric will make them feel like, oh, that was in all its various forms worth doing.
00:53:33.760 --> 00:53:38.000
I mean, I guess, you know, when it's on Showtime, you could you'll also be able to rent it.
00:53:38.239 --> 00:53:43.840
The, I mean, the in-demand price is high because for the first month they're they charge a premium.
00:53:44.000 --> 00:53:50.000
Then eventually, I think when it's on Showtime, you can get it on iTunes or whatever for whatever what most movies cost to rent.
00:53:50.239 --> 00:53:56.079
So I guess they'll add up those numbers and say, oh, that was good, and it brought some eyeballs to Showtime or whatever.
00:53:56.159 --> 00:53:58.480
But I don't, you know, that's a big complaint about Netflix.
00:53:58.639 --> 00:54:09.840
Nobody seems to know what where they make their money, what you know, like the world of residuals for people like me and actors and writers is dried up in a big way.
00:54:10.079 --> 00:54:24.320
Um, which is the reason most of us have to just go from job to job to job now, because because back in the old days, if you had a show on something on HBO or on a network, you would get very nice residuals if if they aired it a lot.
00:54:24.639 --> 00:54:28.719
Now with Netflix, like who knows how many times people have pressed the play button.
00:54:28.960 --> 00:54:31.119
They don't share that information anymore.
00:54:31.360 --> 00:54:33.519
So it's it's weird, it's really weird.
00:54:33.679 --> 00:54:36.960
I don't know why some things they'll make a million of.
00:54:37.119 --> 00:54:47.440
I mean, Netflix is sort of in the business of doing a lot of like um teen tween things that are kind of cheaper to make and kids eat them up.
00:54:47.519 --> 00:54:55.679
And I get it, it's a smart business model, but I I don't know then when they spend a couple hundred million on a giant film that don't put in the theaters.
00:54:55.760 --> 00:55:00.880
I just is that I guess that's they're selling subscriptions enough that way.
00:55:01.440 --> 00:55:04.880
It's I don't I don't know that anyone knows anything anymore.
00:55:05.440 --> 00:55:09.119
Greg, they say that you need three miracles to be ordained a saint.
00:55:09.360 --> 00:55:17.280
And as far as we're concerned, after 33 years, getting a Fletch movie off the ground was nothing short of a miracle.
00:55:17.599 --> 00:55:18.079
Thank you.
00:55:18.239 --> 00:55:19.920
That's very nice of you, Jim.
00:55:20.239 --> 00:55:21.519
God, we admire you.
00:55:22.400 --> 00:55:24.639
The standards are very low now for miracles.
00:55:24.880 --> 00:55:27.760
Greg, I know you got to go, but thank you so much for your time.
00:55:27.920 --> 00:55:29.440
We'll be watching on demand.
00:55:29.519 --> 00:55:34.079
We'll be in the theaters on Friday, September 16th, and uh, we look forward to talking to you again.
00:55:34.320 --> 00:55:44.719
Yeah, I I'll gladly come back uh if you guys want to talk again while the movie's making its way through various media, and uh we could talk about the Apple Watch version of the film.
00:55:45.119 --> 00:55:49.840
And uh and uh and I I really appreciate you guys.
00:55:50.000 --> 00:55:52.239
I I'm so glad you didn't hate it.
00:55:52.480 --> 00:55:58.400
Um, and uh and hopefully if you give it a second viewing, uh you'll see new things in it that you like.
00:55:58.559 --> 00:56:14.000
But I I I love that you guys love the movie and the books so much because it's a great character, it's a great creation, what Gregory McDonald did, and also what Michael Ritchie and Andrew Bergman and Chevy Chase did are all wonderful uh bits of American artistry.
00:56:14.239 --> 00:56:15.119
Yeah, perfect.
00:56:15.280 --> 00:56:16.480
All right, Greg, thanks so much.
00:56:16.559 --> 00:56:17.440
We'll talk to you soon.
00:56:17.760 --> 00:56:19.119
Okay, thank you guys.
00:56:19.280 --> 00:56:21.599
Thanks, Jake, thanks, Jim, thanks, Bob.
00:56:24.000 --> 00:56:26.159
What an incredibly nice guy.
00:56:26.639 --> 00:56:27.760
Really good dude.
00:56:28.000 --> 00:56:30.960
He's just as open and honest and nice as he is.
00:56:31.519 --> 00:56:34.000
He's been very charitable towards us to giving us information.
00:56:34.159 --> 00:56:37.440
And he did the exact same thing today, you know, and you gotta appreciate that.
00:56:37.519 --> 00:56:38.800
I can't wait to talk to him against him.
00:56:39.119 --> 00:56:41.760
I think the listeners really learned a lot as we did.
00:56:41.920 --> 00:56:48.079
I think we've got a really in-depth, behind-the-scenes look of how the movie was made.
00:56:48.400 --> 00:57:01.039
I think a lot of my questions, I'm sure yours as well, I mean, I think a lot of my questions were answered as far as differences between the book and the movie, what was in, what was out, uh, you know, those callbacks to the original.
00:57:01.599 --> 00:57:07.519
So, yeah, I learned a lot, and I think, at least I hope that who's ever listening as as well.
00:57:07.840 --> 00:57:20.159
You see, kids, I think what we learned today is that movie makers and directors just can't wave a magic wand and insert anything and everything into their movie that you can possibly dream of.
00:57:20.320 --> 00:57:22.480
The original is owned by another company.
00:57:22.800 --> 00:57:30.480
There are laws and lawyers and people out there protecting the intellectual property of the other films.
00:57:30.960 --> 00:57:43.679
So, that being said, I really think they did an excellent job paying fan service to the character of Fletch, fans of the movie, and lovers of the book.
00:57:44.079 --> 00:57:50.639
I would hope that those that may be a little apprehensive about seeing it will maybe push them over the edge to actually get them to see it.
00:57:50.719 --> 00:58:00.480
Maybe those really Fletch Chevy diehards, just with the reviews and just people talking about how great Ham's performances will maybe encourage them to go and see it.
00:58:00.800 --> 00:58:07.039
I think that the one thing Ham proved in this whole thing is that he is definitely reliable for a Fletch franchise.
00:58:07.119 --> 00:58:08.480
I think that this needs to be a trilogy.
00:58:08.639 --> 00:58:12.239
I think that this needs to be at least three movies in total.
00:58:12.559 --> 00:58:15.039
A Fletch verse would be great.
00:58:15.360 --> 00:58:19.119
But as of Friday, we really can say Fletch lives.
00:58:19.760 --> 00:58:20.559
Amen, brother.
00:58:20.719 --> 00:58:21.199
Shout out.
00:58:22.159 --> 00:58:25.280
I'd once again like to thank Greg Matola for his time.
00:58:25.599 --> 00:58:32.079
Confessed Fletch this Friday, limited theater, so you might have to search for it, but you'll find it.
00:58:32.400 --> 00:58:34.079
Also available on demand.
00:58:34.239 --> 00:58:35.119
There's no excuse.
00:58:35.280 --> 00:58:39.440
Go out and see Confess Fletch this weekend and give us a call on the hotline.
00:58:39.519 --> 00:58:40.559
Let us know what you think.
00:58:40.800 --> 00:58:43.360
We're Jake and Bob and Greg Matola.
00:58:43.440 --> 00:58:44.639
I'm Laker Jim.
00:58:44.800 --> 00:58:46.880
It's time to confess fletch.
00:58:47.360 --> 00:58:48.000
See ya.
00:58:48.320 --> 00:58:48.880
See ya.
00:58:49.199 --> 00:58:50.880
Great job, as always.