Jamie Lee Curtis is ‘in talks’ to take on Angela Lansbury’s iconic Murder She Wrote role in a new feature film
Lansbury, who died aged 96 in 2022, was best known for her portrayal of mystery writer and amateur detective, Jessica Fletcher in the hit American crime drama series, Murder She Wrote, which ran for 12 seasons from 1984 until 1996.
Variety has confirmed Oscar winner Curtis, 66, is in early talks to play Fletcher in the film from Universal Pictures with producers Phil Lord, Chris Miller and Amy Pascal.
The script is from Dumb Money writers Lauren Schuker Blum and Rebecca Angelo.
Curtis is best known for her portrayal of Laurie Strode in multiple movies in the Halloween franchise.
She picked up the Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 2023 for her role as Deirdre Beaubeirdre in Everything Everywhere All At Once.
Jamie Lee Curtis is ‘in talks’ to take on Angela Lansbury’s iconic Murder She Wrote role in a new feature film
Lansbury, who died aged 96 in 2022, , was best known for her portrayal of mystery writer and amateur detective, Jessica Fletcher in the hit American crime drama series, Murder She Wrote, which ran for 12 seasons from 1984 until 1996
For her role on Murder She Wrote, Lansbury was nominated for ten Golden Globes, winning four, earning her the record for the most Golden Globe nominations and wins for Best Actress in a television drama series.
She was also recognized for her work on the hit show with 12 Emmy Award nominations – once again making history for achieving the most Emmy nominations for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, despite never winning the award.
The series itself received three Emmy nominations for Outstanding Drama Series, as well as six Golden Globe nominations in the same category, with two major wins.
Fans were delighted at the casting with one writing: ‘Jamie Legend Curtis can do anything, and I’m sure Queen Angela would approve!’
A second typed: ‘I can see it’ while a third wrote: ‘I would love to see that movie!!!’
In addition to her work on the hit CBS series, Lansbury also earned global fame through a wide variety of other roles on the stage and the screen.
Even her voice earned her recognition the world over, after she lent it to the iconic Beauty and the Beast character Mrs. Potts in Disney’s 1991 animated movie Beauty and the Beast.
She is survived by her three children and three grandchildren.
In 2013, she received an Honorary Academy Award in recognition of her 80 year acting career, having been nominated for the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress on three separate occasions for her roles in Gaslight (1944), The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945), and The Manchurian Candidate (1962).
Beyond the big and small screens, Lansbury became a legend on the stage, having trod the boards of Broadway in a number of different productions, with her work on the Great White Way earning her five Tony Awards, as well as a lifetime achievement award.
She picked up the Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 2023 for her role as Deirdre Beaubeirdre in Everything Everywhere All At Once
The actress (seen in 2018) died peacefully in her sleep at her Los Angeles home in October 2022 . She is survived by her three children and three grandchildren
Curtis is best known for her portrayal of Laurie Strode in multiple movies in the Halloween franchise – seen in 2022’s Halloween Ends
Having earned Oscar nods for two of her first three roles on the big screen, it seemed to many that Lansbury was destined to become one of Hollywood’s greatest leading ladies – however she later revealed that her mature demeanor prompted producers to pigeonhole her as older characters.
Lansbury became a legend in Hollywood and on Broadway during a career that spanned an impressive eight decades and saw her taking on roles alongside some of the industry’s best-known stars when she was just a teen – with the actress landing her first major movie job just four years after she fled wartime London at the age of 14.
Having moved to New York with her actress mother after leaving their home in the UK, Lansbury dedicated herself to her love of drama, and she burst onto the film scene in spectacular fashion at the age of 17, when she landed her first role in the 1944 thriller Gaslight, which saw her holding her own on the big screen alongside Hollywood heavyweights like Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer.
‘I was wrapping Christmas gifts in a department store one minute, then playing opposite Ingrid Bergman the next. It was little short of a miracle,’ Lansbury once told the Daily Mail of her swift ascent to stardom.
The job would ultimately earn her a contract with MGM, as well as the first of three Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actress – the second of which came one year later for her role in The Portrait of Dorian Gray – and it marked the beginning of an illustrious career on the stage and screen, during which she would star alongside a number of industry icons, including Gene Kelly and Katharine Hepburn.
The actress went on to wed actor Peter Shaw in 1949, and that marriage would go on to last 53 years, until his death from heart failure in 2003.
Together, the pair welcomed two children – son Anthony, born in 1952, daughter Deirdre, born in 1953 – and Lansbury also became stepmother to David, Shaw’s son from a previous relationship.
Lansbury once described their relationship as ‘perfect’, and she was left heartbroken by his death, saying at the time: ‘We had the perfect relationship. Not many people can say that. He was everything to me: we were partners at work as well as husband and wife and lovers. I don’t know how we had such a long marriage, but the simple fact was that we were devoted to one another.’
