'Fletch' author Gregory Mcdonald dies - Entertainment News, Film News, Media - Variety

RIP: Gregory Mcdonald, creator of Fletch, dies at 71

I was a huge fan of the guy, and regret how the Fletch movie series was badly bungled. After a pretty good start, Hollywood just dropped the ball. Carioca Fletch is one of the best novels in the series, and it begins exactly where the first Fletch movie ends, with Fletch walking along the beach with his girl in Rio. It would have made an ideal sequel for the following year, and would have made a terrific movie, with intrigue in a spectacular setting filled with exotic sights and great music. Never happened.

Another Fletch book, Fletch and the Man Who, is arguably the best one in the series and involves Fletch's unlikely assignment as press secretary to a prominent politician. That would have made a perfect #3 in the film series. Instead, the studio waited four years to make a sequel, then created some utter crap which destroyed the franchise.