Production
Gregory Mcdonald's novel was very successful and soon Hollywood came calling. His Fletch books were optioned around the mid to late 1970s but the author had retained the right of approving the actor cast to play Fletch. He rejected the likes of Burt Reynolds and Mick Jagger. When the studio mentioned Chevy Chase as Fletch, Mcdonald (even though he had never really seen Chase in anything) agreed. Years before, Chase's manager recommended Mcdonald's books to him but he was not interested at the time. When an old friend and producer Alan Greisman and screenwriter Andrew Bergman got involved, Chase agreed to do it. Mcdonald sent Chase a telegram saying, "I am delighted to abdicate the role of Fletch to you". Bergman was hired to adapt Mcdonald's book into screenplay form. Bergman remembers that he wrote the screenplay "very fast – I did the first draft in four weeks . . . Then there was a certain amount of improv, and something that we used to call dial-a-joke". Mcdonald read the script and was angry by how far it strayed from his book. He wrote to the studio and listed his many objections to the screenplay. Director Michael Ritchie invited Mcdonald to the set of the film and took him out to dinner where, according to Mcdonald, "Point by point, he showed me where I was wrong. I was beautifully chewed out".
According to actor Tim Matheson, Fletch was the first film Chase did after cleaning up his drug problem. However, the studio hired director Michael Ritchie to keep Chase in check. During principal photography, Ritchie would do one take sticking close to the script and then another take allowing Chase to ad-lib. Chase enjoyed the role because it allowed him to play a wide variety of different characters. He said in an interview, "I love props, like wigs and buck-teeth and glasses. At one point I wear an Afro and play basketball with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. There were some scenes where I didn't recognize myself". The comedian enjoyed working with director Ritchie because he gave him the freedom to improvise: "It all began when Tim Matheson asked me what my name was. Right away, with a straight face: 'Ted Nugent'."
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