According to Deadline.com, NBC is looking to remake one of the most successful female-led series in TV history – Murder, She Wrote – which ran on CBS from 1984 to 1996 and stared Angela Landsbury as amateur detective Jessica Fletcher. The new version will star Academy Award-winner Octavia Spencer, and is being reimagined as “a light, contemporary procedural in the vein of Bones or Fargo, which follows a hospital administrator and amateur sleuth (Spencer) 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.” Former Desperate Housewives executive producer Alexandra Cunningham is writing and will executive produce with David Janollari.
Murder would mark the first series regular role for Spencer, who won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for The Help. She previously worked with NBC chairman Bob Greenblatt and Janollari on the 2001 Sci Fi Channel series The Chronicle, which the two executive produced and she recurred on. Spencer’s involvement in Murder, She Wrote stems from an exploratory meeting she took with Greenblatt. “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,” she said.
“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.” Cunningham also spoke of her and Spencer’s shared passions. “Octavia and I are both huge true crime buffs, amateur criminologists, and fans of Angela Lansbury,” she said. “To get the chance to reimagine Murder, She Wrote for a dynamic and multi-faceted actress like Octavia is a thrill and a pleasure.”
Spencer recently wrapped production on Black And White opposite Kevin Costner and is about to begin filming the James Brown biopic Get on Up while also promoting her debut novel, Randi Rhodes, Ninja Detective: The Case of the Time-Capsule Bandit.
article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson
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LOS ANGELES — On March 21, 2012, the state of Alabama officially proclaimed “Octavia Spencer Day” for the native daughter who had captured the nation’s attention and a supporting-actress Oscar for her role as Minny in The Help weeks earlier.
The Montgomery native was granted stretch pink limousine service, slammed down the state Legislature gavel and heard a hometown marching band play a song in her honor. But after that Spencer, 43, stopped accepting accolades for her work.
“It’s hard to outdo a day in my honor, so I kind of wanted that to be the ultimate moment. I didn’t go beyond that,” Spencer says. “At some point you have to stop. I’d be running around accepting things, then I’d get rusty for the work.”
That’s not likely to happen. She is re-emerging with a vengeance, starting with her co-starring role in Fruitvale Station (opening wide on Friday), which garnered top honors at January’s Sundance Film Festival. The film by 27-year-old writer/director Ryan Coogler is based on the true story of Oscar Grant, a resident of the San Francisco Bay Area who was shot by police on New Year’s Day 2009.
Octavia Spencer, a cast member in the film “Smashed,” posing for a portrait at the 2012 Toronto Film Festival in Toronto. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, file)
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press via thegrio.com