More than six decades after Alfred Hitchcock terrified audiences with his classic horror film, The Birds is getting a new life as a television limited series. Sarah Snook, best known for playing Shiv Roy on HBO’s Succession, will star in this modern version. The project is currently being shown to potential networks and streaming services, with no home network attached yet.
This is not a direct remake of the 1963 movie. Instead, the show will be a “present-day reimagining” that moves the story from California to Alaska. It also adds a murder mystery to the bird attacks. Tom Spezialy, who worked on The Leftovers and Watchmen, is writing the series. Universal International Studios and Heyday Television are producing it.
Sarah Snook Plays a Magistrate Trapped in a Nightmare
Sarah Snook will play Myra Massey, a traveling magistrate. The character returns to her small, isolated hometown in Alaska for what she thinks will be a simple court hearing about a death. She expects to close a cold case and leave. Instead, she finds the dead body of her childhood friend, who has been shot multiple times.
Myra is forced to act outside her job as a judge to figure out who killed her friend. While she tries to solve the mystery, the town comes under attack from waves of birds. Nature turns against the people. Myra ends up fighting not just to find a killer but to stay alive in a place where danger comes from the ground and the sky.
The show’s producers say Myra is very different from the lead character in Hitchcock’s film. In the 1963 movie, Tippi Hedren played Melanie Daniels, a wealthy socialite who needs to be rescued multiple times. Myra, on the other hand, has to save herself. No one is coming to help her.
How the New Show Differs From Hitchcock’s Film
The original The Birds came out on March 28, 1963. It starred Rod Taylor, Jessica Tandy, Suzanne Pleshette, and introduced Tippi Hedren. The story follows Melanie Daniels, who travels to the coastal town of Bodega Bay, California, to deliver a pair of love birds to a man she just met. Soon after she arrives, the town’s birds start attacking people for no clear reason. The movie ends without explaining why the attacks happened.
The new TV series changes almost everything except the basic idea of birds attacking people. The setting moves from sunny California to the cold, dark landscape of Alaska. The main character has a completely different job and personality. The show adds a murder mystery that was not in the original film or in Daphne du Maurier’s 1952 short story, which inspired Hitchcock.
Last year, Sue Gibbs, the Head of Development at Heyday Television, spoke about the project at SXSW London. She said the show is not adapting Hitchcock’s movie at all. “We’re going back to the source material, the Daphne du Maurier novella and using that as inspiration,” Gibbs explained. She also said the theme of nature turning against humans feels very current because of climate change.
Multiple Failed Attempts to Remake The Birds Before
This is not the first time someone has tried to bring The Birds back to the screen. There have been at least two serious attempts before this one, and both failed.
In 2007, a film remake was announced. Naomi Watts was attached to star, and Martin Campbell (who directed Casino Royale) was set to direct. That version never moved forward. A decade later, in 2017, the BBC announced it was developing a TV miniseries written by Conor McPherson. That version would have been set in Cornwall, England, like du Maurier’s original story. It also never happened.
The new project seems to have more momentum because it already has a star attached and a finished script from a known writer. But until a network or streamer buys the show, there is no guarantee it will make it to the screen.
The Dark History Behind the Original Film
While The Birds is considered a classic today, the making of the film had a dark side that has become well known over the years. Hitchcock himself called it the “most terrifying motion picture” he ever made. The film received mixed reviews when it first came out, but over time it has been recognized as one of the greatest horror movies ever made.
In 2016, the Library of Congress selected The Birds for preservation in the National Film Registry, calling it “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” The film also earned Ub Iwerks an Academy Award nomination for Best Special Effects, though he lost to Cleopatra. Tippi Hedren won the Golden Globe for New Star of the Year – Actress for her role.
But decades after filming, Hedren revealed that Hitchcock had s*xually harassed her during production. After she rejected his advances, Hedren said Hitchcock made her life difficult on set. In one famous incident, Hitchcock told Hedren that mechanical birds were not working and that real birds had to be used for a final scene. Crew members tied live birds to her body with elastics and threw more live birds at her. Hedren suffered physical and emotional harm from the experience.
This history adds a complicated layer to any new version of The Birds. The new show has a female lead who is the opposite of a damsel in distress, which may be a direct response to how Hedren’s character was written and how Hedren herself was treated.
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Where to Watch the Original The Birds
While waiting for news about Sarah Snook’s limited series, viewers can watch Hitchcock’s original film. The Birds is available to stream on Peacock in the United States. It can also be rented or bought on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Vudu. The runtime is 119 minutes.
The new series does not have a release date or a network yet. The producers are currently taking the project to buyers. If a deal is made, filming could begin sometime in 2027.
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