Murder, She Wrote Remake: Angela Lansbury Thinks NBC is Making "a Mistake," Wishes Octavia Spencer Well

"I saw her in The Help and thought she was absolutely wonderful, a lovely actress," Lansbury said of the remake's star Octavia Spencer. "So I wish her well."

By Tierney Bricker Nov 11, 2013 4:42 PMTags
Angela Lansbury, Octavia SpencerCBS Photo Archive/Ian Gavan/Getty Images

More like disapproval, she wrote!

NBC recently announced plans to remake Murder, She Wrote, with Octavia Spencer stepping into Jessica Fletcher's murder mystery-solvin' shoes, which were made famous by Angela Lansbury.

Nominated for 10 Golden Globe Awards and 12 Emmys for her role on the hit CBS series, Lansbury is now speaking out against NBC's decision to use the title Murder, She Wrote, which she called "a mistake."

"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."

Though Lansbury isn't wild about NBC using the title, she is happy with Spencer's casting, highlighting her Academy Award-winning work in The Help.

"I saw her in The Help and thought she was absolutely wonderful, a lovely actress," she said. "So I wish her well, but I wish it wasn't in Murder, She Wrote."

The show, which has only been ordered to pilot, not series, is being described as "light, contemporary procedural in the vein of Bones or Fargo."

In the remake, Spencer will play "a hospital administrator and amateur sleuth who self-publishes her first mystery novel. Set in a day where sensational headlines inundate the news, this woman's avid fascination with true crime leads her to become an active participant in the investigations." In the original series, which ran from 1984-1996, Lansbury's J.B. was a retired English teacher turned detective, who always outsmarted the investigators on a murder case. 

Back in 2011, Lansbury revealed her desire to return to the iconic role in an interview with Entertainment Weekly.  "Well, I sort of do see it happening when I'm in a dream state," she said. "The people involved—Universal and CBS—they have to get together. They don't realize what an exciting thing it would be if we did that!"

We guess she won't be returning to this version of Cabot Cove!

(E! and NBC are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)

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