When fanboy favorite Kevin Smith chickened out of making a movie version of The Green Hornet (and spin it any way you want, but that’s what he did), I was disappointed. But, he moved on to making Fletch Won, so at least he was still trying something at least a little different. Right? Well forget it.
Kevin has been dumped from Fletch Won in a parting that Miramax describes as amicable. He is no longer in any way associated with it, not as a writer and not as a director. Whether he quit or they fired him is unclear, but the way producer David List describes it, it sounds more like they booted him to me. “His type of comedy just isn't 'Fletch',” says List. “It's not that Kevin isn't talented or funny. It's just that his comedic style, ultimately, proved not translate well for "Fletch," at least as I and Harvey [Weinstein] felt. Keep an open mind. There's lot's of very funny writers out there.” Translation: We don’t think Kevin is capable of doing anything but the same old dick and fart jokes, and we want something better.
Well they’re wrong about that, but whatever. At least it doesn’t sound like it was Kevin that went running this time. They’re fools, they booted him, but at least it doesn’t sound like it was Kevin-generated cowardice. This also probably means you can forget about Jason Lee as Fletch. They’ll no doubt be quick to cast Zach Braff. In fact, List hints that they’ll be announcing something new about Fletch Won next week, expect it to be confirmation of the casting of Braff.
What makes this really bizarre is that it was only a week or so ago that Smith was out talking about how good he was feeling about the project. Now Kevin will move on, he’s busy anyway making his followup to Clerks, the poorly named The Passion of the Clerks. How depressing.
