NBC Producing Pilot For The Revival Of "Murder. She Wrote" Starring Octavia Spencer

CBS’s Murder, She Wrote, might be getting a much needed revival to NBC, according to the network’s announcement. NBC has ordered a pilot of the long-running series, Deadline reports. The series will benefit from the talents of writer Alexandra Cunningham and producer David Janollari. Cunningham’s previous work includes the series Desperate housewives. She will write and executive produce the series alongside Janollari.

Octavia Spencer has been selected as Angela Lansbury's successor.

In addition, Oscar winner Octavia Spencer is set to succeed Angela Lansbury in the lead role of a cunning amateur detective. Despite Spencer’s Oscar win for The Help, this will be the actress’ first series regular contract. She previously worked with NBC chairman Bob Greenblatt and Janollari on the 2001 Sci Fi Channel series The Chronicle, which the two exec produced and she recurred on. This might be an exciting opportunity for Spencer to make a name in television, as her predecessor, Angela Lansbury, earned herself twelve Emmy nominations for the part.

As her first role as a series regular, this could mark a significant career shift for Spencer.

The new series will be more of a re-imagining than a faithful adaptation, with Deadling having described it as “light, contemporary procedural in the vein of Bones or Fargo.” The show is a murder mystery, following Octavia Spencer’s character, a hospital administrator, doubling as a detective in her free time. Her fascination with true crime literature eventually leads her to begin investigating on her own and she eventually writes and publishes her first mystery novel. The series itself will be a Universal TV production in cooperation with studio-based David Janollari Entertainment.

The actress will play an eager amateur detective and budding crime writer.