Trailer
Plot summary
Irwin M. "Fletch" Fletcher reports undercover for the Los Angeles Times, writing as Jane Doe, and is on the beach gathering material on drug trafficking while posing as an addict. Alan Stanwyk, a Boyd Aviation executive, mistakes him for a real junkie and says bone cancer has left him months to live. Because suicide would void his insurance and murder would not, Stanwyk wants Fletch to shoot him at his mansion and then head for Rio de Janeiro. Fletch agrees but doubts the story, and he and colleague Larry look into Stanwyk.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Fletch (1985)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- When Mcdonald's Fletch books were optioned, the author retained the right to veto casting choices. He rejected both Burt Reynolds and Mick Jagger as Irwin "Fletch" Fletcher, but agreed to Chevy Chase, although he had never seen Chase perform.
- With no interest in the script, Burrows tried a new tactic and submitted it with a different title in a different colored binder. There were still no takers - including Universal Pictures, the studio that would eventually produce and release the film.
- Though Smith insisted on casting Lee in the lead role, Miramax head Harvey Weinstein refused to take a chance on him, citing the general inability of his films to gross more than $30 million. The role of Fletch remained uncast, with Smith considering Affleck, Brad Pitt and Jimmy Fallon.
- According to actor Tim Matheson, Fletch was Chase's first film performance after recovering from his drug addiction, and the studio hired director Michael Ritchie to keep Chase focused and comfortable on set.
- The 2005 animated feature Hoodwinked! depicts its Big Bad Wolf as a sarcastic investigative reporter in a direct parody of Fletch, right up to the Lakers shirt, the disguises, and a version of Harold Faltermeyer's "Fletch Theme" playing during his scenes.
- In 2008 a group of Los Angeles Times writers and editors voted the film the 23rd best film set in Los Angeles in the previous 25 years, under two rules: it "had to communicate some inherent truth about the L.A. experience, and only one film per director was allowed on the list".
- Chevy Chase relished the disguises: "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."
- Director Michael Ritchie invited Mcdonald to the set 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."
