Jamie Lee Curtis to give Murder, She Wrote the cinematic treatment it was apparently demanding

Besides giving us all a welcome opportunity to fuck up and forget the comma when we type that name several times over the next two years, the idea of a Murder, She Wrote revival isn’t, like, automatically bad. The basic premise—of a crime writer forced to put her fictional skills to the test in a real-life caper—dates back to the days of Agatha Christie if not earlier, and Curtis has been floating around the genre for several years. (Most notably with her role in the first Knives Out.) We are a little weirded out by the idea of adapting the franchise for film; the episodic nature of Murder, She Wrote is a big part of the fun, as the series slowly built out the world of sleepy Cabot Cove, Maine. (Town motto: “Do not come here. Many of us are murderers.”) The whole point of the show was to be enjoyable folksy and low-stakes with its killings and solvings; translating that from TV to film feels like it would give up part of the game.

Murder, She Wrote is being directed by Pitch Perfect‘s Jason Moore, from a script by Lauren Schuker Blum and Rebecca Angelo. It’s being produced by Amy Pascal, Phil Lord, and Christopher Miller, who are fresh off releasing Project Hail Mary, which is apparently the sort of hit that gets the studios saying “Screw it, you can have a theatrical Murder, She Wrote revival if that’s what you really want.” The film is currently set for a crowded December 22, 2027 arrival.