‘Murder, She Wrote’ reboot with Octavia Spencer scrapped by NBC…for now

E! Online - 'Murder, She Wrote' is dead … but we don't need a detective to get to the bottom of its demise. NBC has decided to not go forward with its proposed reboot of the classic TV series.

Lilly Workneh

Jan 22, 2014

E! Online – Murder, She Wrote is dead … but we don’t need a detective to get to the bottom of its demise. NBC has decided to not go forward with its proposed reboot of the classic TV series following an amateur sleuth, E! News has confirmed.

Deadline first reported the news.

The procedural, which was announced in October, had Oscar winner Octavia Spencerattached to star as a hospital administrator who self-publishes a mystery novel. Angela Lansbury starred in the original Murder, She Wrote for 12 seasons from 1984-1996.

The proposed reboot hailed from writer Alexandra Cunningham and producer David Janollari.

At the time the project was announced, Spencer told Deadline she had a “love for all things mysterious and Angela Lansbury.”

After the project was announced, Lansbury said it was “a mistake” to call the series Murder, She Wrote.

“I think it’s a mistake to call it Murder, She Wrote, 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,” Lansbury said, the Washington Post reports. “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.”

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