Jamie Lee Curtis Rumored for Lead Role in ‘Murder, She Wrote’ Movie

In what is possibly the best news you’ll hear all day, it’s rumored that Jamie Lee Curtis is set to play the lead role in a new Murder, She Wrote film courtesy of Universal Pictures. Curtis will take over for the late Angela Lansbury, who portrayed the character of Jessica Fletcher in the original series that ran on CBS from 1984 to 1996, and in four made-for-TV movies.

Per Deadline, Curtis is the front-runner right now to portray Fletcher in the Murder, She Wrote movie, which is being written by Lauren Schuker Blum and Rebecca Angelo, the same duo that penned the 2023 critically acclaimed film Dumb Money. Plot details remain thin at this point, but in the series, Lansbury’s character of Fletcher was a retired teacher-turned mystery writer who regularly inserted herself into Cabot Cove police investigations to help solve various murder cases, so we expect the movie to follow at least some – if not all – of those plot points.

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Curtis is not only fresh off the success of her first Oscar win thanks to her performance in A24’s Everything Everywhere All at Once, but the rebooted Halloween trilogy that came to a close in 2022. More recently, she appeared in this year’s box office flop Borderlands, as well as The Last Showgirl, starring Pamela Anderson. If a deal can be reached for her to star in Murder, She Wrote, it would be another in a long list of projects she has on the go right now, including the sequel to her 2003 hit titled Freakier Friday, and a starring role in the upcoming series Scarpetta alongside Nicole Kidman, which is based on the series of novels by Patricia Cornwell.

Jamie Lee Curtis is the Perfect Choice for ‘Murder, She Wrote’

As much as we wish Murder, She Wrote was being rebooted as a TV series à la the successful Kathy Bates legal drama Matlock, we’ll take all the Jessica Fletcher we can get right now, even if she’s confined to a two-hour movie. The show was such a beloved fixture on television for so long that we can’t wait to see where a film version takes us, and who knows? Maybe its potential success will eventually lead to a small screen reboot if the stars align.

In the meantime, when it comes to filling the void left by Lansbury’s death in 2022, we can’t think of anyone better at this point than Curtis to fill her shoes. Not only is she a veteran of the industry who brings years of experience to the table, but she’s a chameleon-like actress who’s able to slip into quirky characters like Fletcher and play them to perfection. One only has to look at her varied filmography to see that, where films like A Fish Called Wanda, True Lies, and Knives Out have only worked to showcase her wide range. For Fletcher, we expect she’ll put her own spin on the iconic character, while at the same time paying tribute to Lansbury’s groundbreaking sleuth.

We’ll have more news on the Murder, She Wrote movie as it breaks, but if you want to take a trip down memory lane, all 12 seasons of the original series are streaming now on Peacock.