Clues Point To Jamie Lee Curtis Succeeding Angela Lansbury In ‘Murder, She Wrote’ Movie – The Dish

Matt Grobar
·2-min read

EXCLUSIVE: Oscar winner Jamie Lee Curtis is the top choice to star in the Murder, She Wrote movie coming together at Universal, Dish hears. No deal yet, but we here she’s looming likely to play the Jessica Fletcher role popularized by Angela Lansbury in the hit series that ran 12 seasons on CBS series.

Script is by Lauren Schuker Blum and Rebecca Angelo, the duo behind the Craig Gillespie-directed drama Dumb Money, about the GameStop short squeeze of 2021. Murder, She Wrote is being produced by Lord Miller and Amy Pascal.

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Now, it’s early, but this makes a great deal of sense. Whodunits are hot, from the Knives Out trilogy with Daniel Craig’s Benoit Blanc, to the Hercule Poirot mysteries with Kenneth Branagh that began with Murder On The Orient Express. Just as hot is the career second wind of Curtis, who has come so much further than a Halloween scream queen would dare to dream.

Lansbury starred from 1984 to 1996 in what became one of the most successful and longest-running shows in TV history. Her Jessica Fletcher was a retired schoolteacher turned successful mystery writer, who proves to have an uncanny knack for solving real-life murders. The show was primarily set in the seaside town of Cabot Cove, Maine, though Jessica often travels to other locales as cases unfold. The show was a Sunday night staple, nominated for 41 Emmys with Lansbury nominated each year the series ran. It’s a mystery why she never won. Universal Television produced the series, created by Peter S. Fischer, Richard Levinson, and William Link. Lansbury continued the character through four telepics.

Curtis, who won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Everything, Everywhere, All At Once, currently stars alongside Pamela Anderson in the Gia Coppola-directed Vegas drama The Last Showgirl. She won the Emmy for her arc in The Bear, and also stars alongside Margo Martindale on Prime Video’s dark comedy The Sticky, which she exec produces alongside Jason Blum. She is starring in Amazon’s Kay Scarpetta opposite Nicole Kidman, as well as the James L. Brooks’ comedy Ella McCay. She reprises in Freakier Friday opposite Lindsay Lohan. Stay tuned on Murder, She Wrote.

Curtis is repped by CAA and Jackoway Austen Tyerman.

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