The 1980s CBS hit Murder She Wrote is coming back, and Oscar winner Octavia Spencer will star as the amateur sleuth made famous by Angela Lansbury.
This will be the first regular television role for Spencer since her breakout performance in The Help, according to Deadline. While NBC has yet to fully commit to the project, the series has been given the green light to create a pilot.
"I've always considered myself an armchair detective and in a recent meeting with Bob Greenblatt, he asked me what type of character would be able to lure me to TV. Naturally I said J.B. Fletcher meets Colombo … and here we are," Spencer told Deadline. "I'm ecstatic to have the opportunity to work with Dave Janollari again, and Alex Cunningham, a brilliant writer who shares my love for all things mysterious and Angela Lansbury."
The original Murder She Wrote premiered in 1984 and ran for 12 seasons. The new Murder She Wrote will be a reimagining of the old show and is described as "a light, contemporary procedural in the vein of Bones," Deadline reports.
Read more at Deadline.