Jon Hamm and Greg Mottola reboot ‘Fletch’ on finding joy in childhood

fletch Come back, he’s rated R. Formerly personified on the big screen by Chevy Chase, Jon Hamm is now the embodiment of the iconic journalist turned detective.

Directed and co-written by Greg Mottola confession, fletch Inspired by the second book in the literary franchise. Hamm’s titular hero finds himself the prime suspect in a string of murders and is determined to prove his innocence. As if that wasn’t enough work, he also tries to figure out what happened to his fiancée’s missing art collection.

I met with Hamm and Mottola to discuss the reboot Hollywood has been trying to do for decades. fletch The universe, and how the sequel gets darker and more international.

Simon Thompson: I think the first thing to do is talk about our first interaction with you. fletchI remember renting my first movie on VHS as a kid growing up in England.

Jon Hamm: saw first fletch At the theater with my best friend in 7th grade. We had the good old days and had a lot of fun. There was no internet at the time, so I had to go to the library and look up the books that inspired the film. I remember being surprised that there was a series of books written around this character and thinking, “Wow, this is amazing.” That must mean they plan to keep making these forever. they didn’t. I realized that there is an opportunity here. It can be reinvented, rebooted, and reestablished for a new generation. All this source material is available. I thought, “Wouldn’t that be fun?” It was a lot of fun.

Thompson: Greg, confession, fletch Let’s start with the second book in the series. What was the choice behind it?

Greg Mottola: John had made that decision before he brought the idea to me.i loved it when i was young fletch I read the movie but didn’t read the book. I heard they were great, but I never got to them. I went to read many of them, and loved them, and John’s suggestions made the most sense. and some other great points. It felt like a good starting point.In my opinion, all the events of the first Fletch movie happened in this version’s past fletch in its own way. he’s lived through them all. The character played here by John Slattery was an editor at a Los Angeles newspaper. We didn’t want to do nostalgia. We wanted to go our own way, knowing that there was a common DNA between the original film and this one. A character is a character.

Thompson: When I told people that I had seen this, a lot of people were surprised to see it come out. It has been overshadowed by so many incarnations over the years and is a work in progress. Was it an informed choice to keep a lot of things quiet?

ham: I think there’s a balance you want to strike. Clearly, a conscious understanding of cinema in the ether is required.The landscape is very crowded and seemingly impossible to break through the noise unless you are a tent pole kind of person Top Gun: Maverick Penetrate any market in the world. Except China and Russia. For our intent and purpose, it felt a little like, ‘Well, we’re going to let people find this out in their own time.’ I think it’s a perfectly valid method. You can think of a few TV shows that bubbled up into popular consciousness without pre-built expectations. they just hit. That’s what streamers and other platforms are good at doing on their own. There’s a built-in feeling like, “What’s going to happen to this?” And not much has been leaked to give people that meaning. People were excited when they first saw the trailer. Now we’re excited to see people actually see the movie.

Thompson: Yes mad men Reunited with John Slattery here. Did you petition, John?

ham: It was 100% intentional. I wanted a little wink and nod to being a part of what we did. I also knew that his character would definitely come back in some way if I could make . I’m here. When we shoot a movie within 30 days, we have to rely on these already established relationships. I found it very comfortable to watch.

Thompson: Have you started talking about a sequel? And are you lining up anything else? mad men Co-stars like Michael Gladys?

ham: (Laughter) It’s not deep. mad men bench. yet.

Motra: It’s a nice bench. You have some heavy hitters out there.

ham: We started talking about the possibility of a follow-up confession, fletchAs you say, there are quite a few other novels, so hopefully I’ll keep working on them until my hair turns gray.

Thompson: It was nice to see you filming Boston in Boston instead of another place pretending to be Boston.so you want to take fletch International?

Motra: we talked about it. Nobody knows if there will be a next book, so I don’t want to jinx us by saying that the book we’re thinking about might be the next one. I want to The book we’re talking about feels different in many ways and is probably a bit of a dark satire.

ham: If you’re a fan of the books, you know that many stories have a decidedly international tone. We are both very superstitious types. So I don’t want to step on a black cat here.

Thompson: There is an intellectual childishness to some of the humor. confession, fletchThe one that stood out for me was from the old school kids rhyme around the corner where chocolate is made.

ham: (Laughs) I think it’s a good example, so thank you. It’s buried there pretty well. No pompous intentions. We were looking for both sides of that. Scripts exist for a reason. It’s a great framework and structure for hanging funny things and jokes, finding something silly or silly during the day to make us laugh. Put it in, and if it doesn’t smile, pull it out. it doesn’t matter. It was especially like, “Let me do this.”

Motra: Makes me laugh every time.

Thompson: I watched the end of the credits. At the end, you can hear Jon say “five stars”. What was behind it?

ham: It wasn’t in the script. This was an idea I thought I was trying to update for a modern audience. The book was written in the 70’s. There was no such thing as Uber, so bring it now.it just looked like fletch He would always say yes to the kind person who would give him a ride wherever he was needed.

Thompson: What surprised you two most about making this?

ham: We obviously believed in its potential, but when you’re making a film under pandemic protocols, especially when you have to spend 20% of your budget on it and you have to keep people safe. It was a very difficult task, considering that the money doesn’t show up on the screen. There is a balance that has to be challenged, but we got through it and made the movie we wanted to make. If we are successful, we can continue to make them.

Motra: It’s also a strange time for theatrical comedy. I don’t see them much these days. Part of it is the pandemic, and a lot of movies disappeared during the pandemic, but they’re slowly coming back. I didn’t know. Will it be streaming, on demand, or in theaters? It’s a brave new world and all bets are off and it’s time for a transition. will always be my first love.

confession, fletch Lands in theaters, digital and on demand on Friday, September 16, 2022.