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Bill Lawrence to Direct Fletch Won
The Weinstein Company is proud to announce that Bill Lawrence (Emmy nominated “Scrubs”) has signed on to adapt and direct “Fletch Won,” based on the book of the same name in the successful 1980’s “Fletch” franchise of mystery/comedy novels written by Gregory Mcdonald. Lawrence is expected to direct the film in April 2007 during his hiatus from “Scrubs.” “Fletch Won” will be the first feature film Lawrence will direct. David List is a producer on the project. No cast is attached yet. The announcement was made today by Michael Cole, co-president of production for The Weinstein Company.
“Fletch Won” predates the first seven books in the series, and follows the early days of the title character's journalism career as a junior reporter in his 20’s working at the News-Tribune.
Cole stated, stated “This is an important franchise for our company and we can’t think of a better person than Bill to take the ‘Fletch’ story all the way back to the beginning. His work on ‘Scrubs’ speaks for itself and his ideas for adapting ‘Fletch Won’ are hilarious and incredibly smart.”
Bill Lawrence stated, "The coolest thing about the ‘Fletch Won’ book is that it's an origin story. Like ‘Batman Begins,’ I think people will enjoy seeing how Irwin Fletcher became Fletch. Not only can I recite the original ‘Fletch’ movie line for line, I actually read all the Greg Mcdonald books as a kid. Consider me obsessed, - I'm going to try as hard as I can not to screw this up."
Cole and Carla Gardini, senior vice president of production, will oversee the project on behalf of TWC.
Bill Lawrence is the Creator, Executive Producer, and occasionally the Director of NBC’s hit comedy series, “Scrubs,” which was named a “Future Classic” by the TV Land cable network, won a Humanitas Award, an Imagen Award, and was a nominee for a People’s Choice Award, all in its first season. “Scrubs” was also nominated for an Outstanding Comedy Emmy in both 2005 and this year.
Lawrence wrote his first television script at the age of 22 for the comedy series “Billy,” starring Billy Connolly. His writing career began to skyrocket when he became a staff writer on NBC’s “Friends” during its first season, penning the Valentine’s Day episode. By age 26 he had co-created “Spin City,” Michael J. Fox’s return to network television. Lawrence continued to work on the series as the head writer and producer, and became Executive Producer in the 1998-99 season. He also returned to the series in 2001 to write Fox’s farewell episode, which garnered the actor an Emmy Award later that year. He also created “Clone High” on MTV, and “Nobody’s Watching” – an internet show recently picked up by NBC.
Stay tuned for updates.
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