A reboot of the hit US drama Murder, She Wrote has been scrapped by US television network NBC.

It was reported in October that Oscar-winning actress Octavia Spencer had signed to star in a pilot.

The original series featured Angela Lansbury as a writer and amateur sleuth. Spencer was to play a hospital administrator who dabbled in detective work.

But Deadline has said the network has decided not to proceed with the show.

The original series is one of the most successful series in TV history with Lansbury playing mystery writer Jessica Fletcher in 264 episodes from 1984-1996.

When plans for a pilot were announced, Lansbury said she was not happy that they were using the same title.

"I think it's a mistake to call it Murder, She Wrote", she told the Associated Press, "because Murder, She Wrote will always be about Cabot Cove and this wonderful little group of people who told those lovely stories and enjoyed a piece of that place, and also enjoyed Jessica Fletcher, who is a rare and very individual kind of person.

"So I'm sorry that they have to use the title Murder, She Wrote, even though they have access to it and it's their right."

At the height of its popularity, Murder, She Wrote attracted 23 million viewers in the US.

Lansbury won four Golden Globes and 12 consecutive Emmy nominations for her performance.

Deadline has suggested NBC may try again in the future with a Murder, She Wrote remake but with a different concept.

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There is a God! I am so happy they 86-ed this disaster, I could fly around the room right now! I can't see anyone else playing as JB Fletcher other than Angela Landsbury. It would be like...remaking The Wizard of Oz or Gone with the Wind...or Citizen Kane, like my clapping gif is from...it'd just be wrong to redo what is a classic. I was extremely passionate and against this being done and I could just pop it's been tossed.

I saw an interview Tavis Smiley did with Angela Landsbury and even she was saying she didn't want it remade, and that doing a TV series was beneath Octavia because she was an Oscar-worthy film star. And I do agree. Octavia is extremely talented and too young to move from film to television. Once she's like 99 like Angela, then she can do television. (Because Angela started in films...)

Can't Hollywood come up with something different rather than remaking an old school classic? ::)

Nope.  Hollywood has lost it's imagination