Fletch is here…Chevy Chase is not.
April 19, 2007

Universal’s re-issuing an all-new special edition of 1985’s Fletch next week, the press materials for the release touting that the comedy is “back on DVD for the first time in three years.” (It was originally released on DVD back in 1998, so I’m assuming it’s been on moratorium since 2004.)

There’re two featurettes on the new Fletch: The Jane Doe Edition ($19.98 srp)—a making-of and remembrance piece, and a brief look investigative reporter Fletch’s many disguises (you remember—John Cocktoaston and Dr. Rosenpenis don’t you?). The featurettes, produced by Matt Pevic, James Brown III and Jason Hillhouse include talking head snippets with supporting players M. Emmet Walsh, Larry “Flash” Jenkins, George Wyner, Richard Libertini, Tim Matheson and leading lady Dana Wheeler-Nicholson (who chats happily about her giant 80s-era Fletch hair). Also on hand to chat are screenwriter Andrew Bergman, producers Peter Douglas and Alan Greisman and editor Richard A. Harris. Sadly, director Michael Ritchie died in 2001, so he’s not on hand to offer his comments.

Oh yeah, the star of the movie, whatsisname, you know….um….Chevy Chase. Yeah, that’s it, Chevy Chase. Well, he’s nowhere to be found. He doesn’t make an appearance on a special edition of what’s probably his best film and possibly his most commercially successful. Unless something life-threatening or earth-shattering kept him from the supplemental proceedings, that is very uncool. Very, very uncool. Perhaps he got DVD career advice from Alicia Silverstone, who was conspicuously absent from Paramount’s Clueless “Whatever” Edition a couple of years back. You remember that one—it was the disc with the supplements featuring Clueless co-stars Paul Rudd, Brittany Murphy, Stacey Dash, Wallace Shawn and Dan Hedaya. We wonder if Alicia remembers passing on the project. And we really wonder what Chevy was thinking when he decided not to contribute to this latest edition of Fletch.

Posted by Laurence Lerman on April 19, 2007 | Comments (4)