‘The Birds’: Alfred Hitchcock’s Terrifying 1963 Movie Is Getting a Miniseries Adaptation!!

Alfred Hitchcock is a legendary master of the macabre, yet, in recent years, few filmmakers have tried to put their own spin on some of his classic stories. The mastermind behind such influential titles as Psycho, Vertigo, and The Man Who Knew Too Much was once a frequent target for remakes, with everyone from Brian De Palma (three times!) to Gus Van Sant and Park Chan-wook tackling his catalog in their own way. Yet, few have dared approach work throughout the 2010s on, with the last being Ben Wheatley for his 2020 take on Rebecca, itself seven years removed from the last such adaptation, Park‘s 2013 film Stoker, based loosely on Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt. However, that’s now about to change.

According to a new report, one of Hitchcock‘s most acclaimed horror films is about to get the limited series treatment, a full 63 years after its release — The Birds. A buzzy new package based on the avian-themed flick is currently seeking buyers with a big name in Succession Emmy winner Sarah Snook in the starring role. Tom Spezialy, known for co-creating and developing Ash vs. Evil Dead and producing the Watchmen miniseries, is writing the show while Universal International Studios (UIS) and David Heyman‘s Heyday Television produce, a fitting partnership considering Universal Pictures also backed the 1963 classic.

The new The Birds is being described as a modern reimagining of the original, pulling from both Hitchcock‘s film and Daphne du Maurier‘s short story that inspired it. It’ll be set in Spezialy‘s native Alaska and, instead of following the budding romance between a lawyer and a socialite against the backdrop of a violent bird attack in Northern California, it’ll revolve around a murder mystery. At the center is traveling magistrate Myra Massey (Snook), who ventures back to her hometown for what she assumes will be a run-of-the-mill presumptive death hearing. However, she’s suddenly presented with the bullet-ridden body of a childhood friend and a lot of unanswered questions that spur her to step outside of her duties as a judge to investigate. The one thing the series does have in common with Hitchcock and Murier‘s work is the birds, and there will be many of them, as Myra’s digging is derailed when nature turns deadly. Finding the answers and closure for the case now means risking life and limb as death rains from the sky.

‘The Birds’ Will Return to the Story’s Origins

There have been a few attempts to recreate the airborne horror of The Birds over the past two decades, including a 2007 film that would’ve been directed by Martin Campbell and would’ve starred Naomi Watts. All indications have been that the series, which has been in development for over a year, will hew closer to Maurier’s story, leaning into the angle of how nature can turn on humanity. For Snook, it’ll be a reunion with UIS, which previously backed her latest acclaimed project, All Her Fault, at Peacock last year. With a Tony Award to her name after her performance in The Picture of Dorian Gray on-stage and, of course, her much-lauded experience as Shiv Roy in Succession, she’ll be a powerhouse presence bringing a much different energy to the series than that of Tippi Hedren in the original film.