‘The Birds’: Sarah Snook to Lead HBO Remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s Most Terrifying Movie!!

Just in time for Halloween, one of Alfred Hitchcock‘s most iconic horror movies is getting a remake, in the form of an HBO miniseries. What’s more, an Emmy-winner is attached to star in the series, which has been in development for years in various forms.

Despite Hitchcock‘s reputation as the undisputed master of suspense, there have been occasional stabs at remaking his movies. Most infamous is Gus Van Sant‘s 1998 remake of Psycho, which was a complete shot-by-shot remake that critics dismissed as a feature-length experiment in pointlessness. More successful was A Perfect Murder, from that same year, which remade Dial M for Murder with Gwyneth Paltrow and Michael Douglas; it doubled its budget at the box office. And, of course, Hitchcock wasn’t averse to remakes himself: he remade his own 1934 thriller The Man Who Knew Too Much in 1956; the critical consensus is that the remake is superior, with Hitchcock himself stating “…the first version is the work of a talented amateur and the second was made by a professional.”

Now, Deadline reports that The Birds is coming to HBO to roost. An adaptation of the 1952 short story by Daphne du Maurier, The Birds will star Succession Emmy-winner Sarah Snook as Myra Massey, a woman who returns to her Alaskan hometown with her young daughter to investigate an old friend’s disappearance. However, as she digs deeper into the mystery, she and the town are subject to mysterious, possibly supernatural attacks by the local bird population. Snook will executive produce the project with Tom Spezialy (The Leftovers) and David Heyman (Harry Potter).

What Is ‘The Birds’ About?

Set in the small coastal town of Bodega Bay, California, The Birds concerns socialite Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren, Marnie), who travels there to get closer to lawyer Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor, The Time Machine). However, once she’s there, she’s subject to suspicion from the townspeople, including his overbearing mother (Jessica Tandy, Driving Miss Daisy) and his jealous ex (Suzanne Pleshette, The Bob Newhart Show). They only become more suspicious when the local birds begin to act more aggressively, and soon turn homicidal. The film’s script was by Evan Hunter, best known under the alias Ed McBain, author of the 87th Precinct crime novels. Although reviews were mixed upon its release, it is now considered one of the greatest horror films of all time.