Jon Hamm Hit With Tough Career Setback

Mad Men actor Jon Hamm has been hit with a tough career setback. It’s been announced that, for now, there will not be a sequel to his critically heralded and fan-favorite sleuth comedy, Confess, Fletch.

Over on X (formerly Twitter), Confess, Fletch writer-director Greg Mottola (Superbad, Adventureland) shared the unfortunate news that the sequel he’d been attached to is no longer in development. “Alas, the new head of Miramax, who controls the rights to all the books, shot down my sequel project,” he replied to a fan asking about the movie. “The Fletch curse got me.”

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Confess, Fletch was released in 2022, continuing the iconic novel-turned-movie franchise launched in the ’80s with Chevy Chase in the titular role. The movie follows ex-investigative reporter Irwin “Fletch” Fletcher (Hamm) as he attempts to clear his name in a murder case, while also tracking down an art thief. In addition to Hamm, the film also stars Roy Wood Jr., Annie Mumolo, Lorenza Izzo, Kyle MacLachlan, John Slattery, Ayden Mayeri,and Marcia Gay Harden.

PopCulture.com had a chance to speak with Mottola in support of the film back in 2022, and he explained how he approached the narrative outside of the previous Fletch films and original novel series, written by Gregory Mcdonald. “I think in my mind the events of the original film happened to this Fletch in their own way,” Mottola explained. 

“The time period is different and everything, but interestingly in the second book, Gregory Mcdonald made Fletch already having retired from investigative reporting, which worked for our purposes, that he’s out of it and he kind of gets pulled back into it, or form of it,” Mottola added. “So yes, I think all those events took place.”