Smith was replaced as writer/director by "Scrubs" creator Bill Lawrence, in what would have been his directorial debut. He had enthused, "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." Lawrence was signed to direct both "Fletch Won" and a sequel. "Scrubs" star Zach Braff was rumored to be in talks for the lead role, and in January 2007, Braff posted on his web site that "Bill Lawrence is writing and directing "Fletch" in the spring and he wants me to play young Fletch, but no firm plans are in place yet. He is still writing the script." In April 2007, Braff announced that he had dropped out of the film to work on his own film, a remake of "Open Hearts". In June 2007, it was announced that Lawrence was off the project and had been replaced by Steve Pink.