{"id":39566,"date":"2025-07-26T20:55:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-26T20:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/39566\/"},"modified":"2025-07-26T20:55:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T20:55:10","slug":"jamie-lee-curtis-murder-she-wrote-reboot-happening-why-we-need-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/39566\/","title":{"rendered":"Jamie Lee Curtis ‘Murder She Wrote’ Reboot Happening, Why We Need It"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last year, Deadline reported<\/a> that Oscar-winner Jamie Lee Curtis<\/a> was prepping to fill the late legend Angela Lansbury<\/a>\u2018s shoes in a new version of \u201cMurder, She Wrote,\u201d the beloved \u201980s and \u201990s 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).<\/p>\n

At the \u201cFreakier Friday\u201d premiere, Curtis confirmed to Entertainment Weekly<\/a> that the project is still on the way, in a dramatic fashion: \u201cOh, it\u2019s\u2026,\u201d employs pregnant pause and dramatic facial expressions, \u201chappening.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a> \"'Pluribus'\"<\/a> <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re a minute away. But, yeah, very excited, very excited. But I\u2019m, you know, tamping down my enthusiasm until we start shooting,\u201d she added. \u201cI have a couple other things to hustle and then, then I\u2019ll get to enjoy that work.\u201d<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the first attempt at remaking the long-running series. Over a decade ago, a reboot was planned<\/a> with Octavia Spencer, but it didn\u2019t get off the ground. Lansbury was still around at the time and was not a fan of the idea. \u201cI think it\u2019s a mistake to call it \u2018Murder, She Wrote,’\u201d Lansbury told Variety at the time<\/a>. \u201cBecause \u2018Murder, She Wrote\u2019 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\u2026 So I\u2019m sorry that they have to use the title \u2018Murder, She Wrote,\u2019 even though they have access to it and it\u2019s their right.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Honorary Oscar recipient<\/a> \u2014\u00a0who starred in classics ranging from \u201cGaslight\u201d to \u201cBeauty and the Beast\u201d \u2014\u00a0added that she enjoyed Spencer\u2019s work. \u201cI saw her in \u2018The Help\u2019 and thought she was absolutely wonderful, a lovely actress\u2026 So I wish her well, but I wish it wasn\u2019t in \u2018Murder, She Wrote.’\u201d<\/p>\n

How she would\u2019ve felt about Curtis taking on a new version of the project is anyone\u2019s guess, as Lansbury died at age 96 in 2022<\/a>, but the actress does have a very interesting connection to the original series \u2014\u00a0and 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<\/a> movies.<\/p>\n

In Season 4, Episode 11, none other than Janet Leigh<\/a> guest stars \u2014\u00a0as in the Oscar-nominated actress from \u201cPsycho,\u201d<\/a> \u201cTouch of Evil,\u201d \u201cBye Bye Birdie,\u201d \u201cThe Naked Spur,\u201d and one of the \u201cLittle Women.\u201d And Leigh, as film trivia fans and followers of Curtis\u2019s Instagram know, was Curtis\u2019s mother.<\/p>\n

Her appearance, while a starry one for the series, was far from the only one of its kind. The secret sauce of \u201cMurder She Wrote<\/a>\u201d was its high-powered guest stars. Everybody who was anybody (and was still alive) from Hollywood\u2019s Golden Age appeared on the show \u2014\u00a0oftentimes multiple times as multiple characters. You see, back in those days there weren\u2019t keen-eyed \u201cAnd Just Like That\u201d viewers<\/a> pointing out inconsistencies from episode to episode. Separate an actor by a couple seasons, and everyone has forgotten they were ever there.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cbefore they were famous\u201d variety, including Joaquin Phoenix, Megan Mullally, George Clooney, Bryan Cranston, and Courteney Cox.<\/p>\n

Leigh only made the one guest spot \u2014\u00a0in an episode that also included \u201cThe Facts of Life\u201d star Charlotte Rae. I decided to check it out \u2014\u00a0honestly, there\u2019s never a reason not to turn on \u201cMurder, She Wrote.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

And somehow, Curtis feels like a worthy successor. With Lansbury gone \u2014\u00a0and the possibility of her Jessica Fletcher returning totally out of the questions \u2014\u00a0it\u2019s 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<\/a> in \u201cKnives Out.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a shame, honestly, that we never got to see how Octavia Spencer\u2019s version might have turned out. There\u2019s 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\u2019s Miss Marple (which Lansbury, coincidentally, also played on screen<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Just picture it: Curtis dawns a pair of spectacles, takes out a typewriter \u2014\u00a0which I\u2019m assuming her character clings to for aesthetic inspiration \u2014\u00a0and taps out a novel based around the crime she solved earlier that day, between tea time and a droll dinner party. It\u2019s the kind of series the BBC pumps out in batches. Our 40-year-old American equivalent largely holds up \u2014\u00a0why not give it another spin?<\/p>\n

The Janet Leigh episode, cleverly titled \u201cDoom With a View,\u201d<\/a> finds Jessica visiting an upscale New York City hotel where \u2014\u00a0get this \u2014\u00a0a murder happens. What?! Surprise, surprise! It contains Jessica quips like \u2014\u00a0in response to a character saying \u201cIf she\u2019s insane, then I am too\u201d \u2014\u00a0\u201cThat\u2019s precisely what the Bordens said about their daughter Lizzie.\u201d<\/p>\n

And then\u2026 get this\u2026 with no security detail or police backup, Jessica just confronts the killer at the end all kindly and posh basically saying, \u201cYou did it. Now fess up.\u201d 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. <\/p>\n

Now tell me this is not Jamie Lee Curtis. We need it.<\/p>\n

And with a nice peppering of some of our finest familiar faces \u2014\u00a0particularly those from 70\u2019s, 80\u2019s, 90\u2019s\u2026 our most recent Golden-ish Age \u2014\u00a0it can\u2019t possibly fail.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last year, Deadline reported that Oscar-winner Jamie Lee Curtis was prepping to fill the late legend Angela Lansbury\u2018s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39567,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[32128,236,88,20055,32129,32130,92],"class_list":{"0":"post-39566","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-angela-lansbury","9":"tag-celebrities","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-jamie-lee-curtis","12":"tag-janet-leigh","13":"tag-murder-she-wrote","14":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39566\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}