Last year, Deadline reported that Oscar-winner Jamie Lee Curtis was prepping to fill the late legend Angela Lansbury‘s shoes in a new version of “Murder, She Wrote,” the beloved ’80s and ’90s series that saw mystery novelist Jessica Fletcher (Lansbury) tracking down murderers (more than 250 of them, actually) in the sleepy Maine hamlet of Cabot Cove, as well as in her globe-trotting travels (courtesy of the Universal Studios backlot).
At the “Freakier Friday” premiere, Curtis confirmed to Entertainment Weekly that the project is still on the way, in a dramatic fashion: “Oh, it’s…,” employs pregnant pause and dramatic facial expressions, “happening.”
“We’re a minute away. But, yeah, very excited, very excited. But I’m, you know, tamping down my enthusiasm until we start shooting,” she added. “I have a couple other things to hustle and then, then I’ll get to enjoy that work.”
This isn’t the first attempt at remaking the long-running series. Over a decade ago, a reboot was planned with Octavia Spencer, but it didn’t get off the ground. Lansbury was still around at the time and was not a fan of the idea. “I think it’s a mistake to call it ‘Murder, She Wrote,’” Lansbury told Variety at the time. “Because ‘Murder, She Wrote’ will always be about a Cabot Cove and this wonderful little group of people who told those lovely stories and enjoyed a piece of that place, and also enjoyed Jessica Fletcher, who is a rare and very individual kind of person… So I’m sorry that they have to use the title ‘Murder, She Wrote,’ even though they have access to it and it’s their right.”
The Honorary Oscar recipient — who starred in classics ranging from “Gaslight” to “Beauty and the Beast” — added that she enjoyed Spencer’s work. “I saw her in ‘The Help’ and thought she was absolutely wonderful, a lovely actress… So I wish her well, but I wish it wasn’t in ‘Murder, She Wrote.’”
How she would’ve felt about Curtis taking on a new version of the project is anyone’s guess, as Lansbury died at age 96 in 2022, but the actress does have a very interesting connection to the original series — and its a connection that shines a light on exactly what made the original CBS series successful enough to run for 12 seasons and four follow-up TV movies.
In Season 4, Episode 11, none other than Janet Leigh guest stars — as in the Oscar-nominated actress from “Psycho,” “Touch of Evil,” “Bye Bye Birdie,” “The Naked Spur,” and one of the “Little Women.” And Leigh, as film trivia fans and followers of Curtis’s Instagram know, was Curtis’s mother.
Her appearance, while a starry one for the series, was far from the only one of its kind. The secret sauce of “Murder She Wrote” was its high-powered guest stars. Everybody who was anybody (and was still alive) from Hollywood’s Golden Age appeared on the show — oftentimes multiple times as multiple characters. You see, back in those days there weren’t keen-eyed “And Just Like That” viewers pointing out inconsistencies from episode to episode. Separate an actor by a couple seasons, and everyone has forgotten they were ever there.
Among some of the bigger classic names to pop up were Leslie Nielsen, Cyd Charisse, Dorothy Lamour, Van Johnson, June Allyson, Kathryn Grayson, Jane Greer, Adam West, Rue McClanahan, and Jessica Walter. Then there were, of course, the “before they were famous” variety, including Joaquin Phoenix, Megan Mullally, George Clooney, Bryan Cranston, and Courteney Cox.
Leigh only made the one guest spot — in an episode that also included “The Facts of Life” star Charlotte Rae. I decided to check it out — honestly, there’s never a reason not to turn on “Murder, She Wrote.” It is not that modern. The pacing is a little slower. But it feels cozy, even with all the murder. The whimsy and assured charm of Lansbury is infectious.
And somehow, Curtis feels like a worthy successor. With Lansbury gone — and the possibility of her Jessica Fletcher returning totally out of the questions — it’s easy to see why now might be the right time. Curtis, too, has proven herself to be a good fit for the murder mystery genre, with her excellent performance in “Knives Out.”
It’s a shame, honestly, that we never got to see how Octavia Spencer’s version might have turned out. There’s probably a few variations on this that could work. But somehow 2025, more than 2013, feels like a year desperately in need of comfort show. There is something so terribly alluring about a procedural with an unlikely protagonist in the vein of Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple (which Lansbury, coincidentally, also played on screen).
Just picture it: Curtis dawns a pair of spectacles, takes out a typewriter — which I’m assuming her character clings to for aesthetic inspiration — and taps out a novel based around the crime she solved earlier that day, between tea time and a droll dinner party. It’s the kind of series the BBC pumps out in batches. Our 40-year-old American equivalent largely holds up — why not give it another spin?
The Janet Leigh episode, cleverly titled “Doom With a View,” finds Jessica visiting an upscale New York City hotel where — get this — a murder happens. What?! Surprise, surprise! It contains Jessica quips like — in response to a character saying “If she’s insane, then I am too” — “That’s precisely what the Bordens said about their daughter Lizzie.”
And then… get this… with no security detail or police backup, Jessica just confronts the killer at the end all kindly and posh basically saying, “You did it. Now fess up.” Then explains in detail to him how he did it, while he just breathes slightly heavier and listens. In some episodes she does this same thing while the killer has her at gunpoint. The girl has all the chill.
Now tell me this is not Jamie Lee Curtis. We need it.
And with a nice peppering of some of our finest familiar faces — particularly those from 70’s, 80’s, 90’s… our most recent Golden-ish Age — it can’t possibly fail.