Jon Hamm plays the lead role of Irwin Maurice “Fletch” Fletcher, in new “Fletch” from Superbad director Greg Mottola. Confess Fletch is based off the novel of the same name from 1976, from writer Gregor MacDonald, telling the story about a charming former investigative reporter who becomes prime suspect in a murder investigation, while investigating stolen art pieces. The film is a sequel of the original 1985 Neo-Noir comedy film “Fletch” starring Chevy Chase, who reprised his role in 1989’s Fletch Lives.

Fletch had been the protagonist of nine previous novels, all of which were written by Macdonald, and the success of the series resulted in the aforementioned films, as well as a spin off series starring recurring character: Francis Xavier Flynn, an eccentric Boston police detective that debuted in the original novel.

Different actors playing the same characters often sparks debate and comparison from audiences (James Bond and Batman as examples). This is a  subject that was clearly in the forefront of Hamm’s mind. On the subject of his portrayal of the titular character, Insider quoted Hamm, saying:

“I came to the character much more organically. I was able to have an operation sense of who this guy was that was pretty divorced from all the things that Chevy did. We made a conscious decision to not do an imitation.”

Hamm, a longtime fan of the character, detailed his journey of falling in love with the goofy ner’do’well about playing the character in an interview with ComicBook.com:

“I was introduced to the character through the original film and then immediately was so taken by it that I wanted to find out everything that I could, and in a pre-internet era like the ’80s, you had to go do that kind of work at bookstores and libraries around town.”

A longtime fan of the novels, concerned about the adaptations accuracy can rest easy knowing that the star is a passionate fan of the source material.

While the film has received positive reviews from critics, the film’s opening weekend started off with a disappointing 260,000 dollars, very likely from the films lack of promotional material. the film has been released to Paramount+, and is  likely going to , but so has the film’s apparently near-total lack of promotion. Blackstone Audio, the current owners of the rights to the audiobooks of the Fletch franchise, have released an advert for the film.

The film stars Jon Hamm, Lorenza Izzo, Anna Osceola, Ayden Mayeri, Marcia Gay Harden, and John Lattery.

Check out the trailer: