HBO Is Bringing Hitchcock’s ‘The Birds’ Back as an Alaska-Set Murder Mystery Starring Sarah Snook

Few horror films have left a mark on pop culture like Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘The Birds’. The 1963 thriller, led by Tippi Hedren, Rod Taylor, Jessica Tandy, Suzanne Pleshette and Veronica Cartwright, drew mixed reviews at release but is now regarded as one of his most iconic films. It was based on a short story by Daphne du Maurier, published in 1952.

That reputation has also made it a stubborn property to update. A feature remake was announced in 2007 with Naomi Watts attached to star and Martin Campbell set to direct, and a BBC series from Irish playwright Conor McPherson was announced in 2017. Neither came to fruition.

Now a new attempt has found a home at a premium network. HBO has picked up ‘The Birds’ as a limited series in development, with Emmy-winning ‘Succession’ star Sarah Snook leading the cast, Deadline reported in an exclusive. The project is billed as a present-day reimagining set in Alaska, with a murder mystery at its center.

Snook plays a new character named Myra Massey, a traveling magistrate who returns to her isolated Alaskan hometown for a routine presumptive death hearing. She expects a simple cold case, but instead finds the bullet-ridden body of her childhood friend. When she is forced to step outside her role as judge to untangle the mystery, nature itself turns hostile with a wave of bird attacks.

A separate description adds a personal angle. It says Myra is escaping a bitter custody battle and returns home with her young daughter, secretly probing her friend’s disappearance while trying to protect the girl from deadly birds tied to the crime. That gives the story a parent-versus-nature edge that Hitchcock’s film didn’t have.

The move to Alaska is a deliberate shift. Du Maurier’s story was set in Cornwall, while Hitchcock relocated the action to Bodega Bay, California. Writer Tom Spezialy is from Alaska and wanted to bring the story to a landscape he knows intimately.

The series is not meant to be a straight retelling of the film. At SXSW London in June, Heyday Television’s head of development reportedly clarified that the project is not adapting Hitchcock’s movie directly. Instead, it draws on both the film and du Maurier’s novella while adding new characters and a murder plot.

Spezialy, who executive produced HBO’s ‘Watchmen’ and ‘The Leftovers’, wrote the pilot. He and Snook executive produce alongside David Heyman, who is executive producing HBO’s upcoming ‘Harry Potter’ series, and Danny Samit through Heyday Television. Jennifer Gabler Rawlings of Omni Artists also executive produces, and Universal Global Television is a co-studio with HBO.

The project had been in development at Universal Global Television and its predecessor for more than a year. It was first reported in May and shopped to buyers over the summer before landing at HBO. The deal reunites Snook with the network for the first time since ‘Succession’ ended.

Snook is coming off a strong run. She won an Emmy in 2023 for playing Shiv Roy on ‘Succession’, and she recently headlined the Peacock limited series ‘All Her Fault’, which was a hit and brought her back into Emmy contention for her role as a mother whose child is abducted. Fans of that thriller may see parallels in the new project’s focus on a mother protecting her child.

Her role as an executive producer also signals a deeper involvement. The series is a notable step for a performer who has become closely associated with prestige television. For HBO, it adds another genre project to a slate that includes ‘The Pet Cemetery Murders: A Ghost Story’.

It is still early. HBO’s version remains in development, and the reports include no premiere date, episode count or co-stars. Many projects at this stage never make it to screen, which fits the history of earlier remake attempts.

Even so, the combination of a major star, an HBO pedigree and a fresh Alaska setting gives the project more momentum than previous efforts. Turning a 1963 classic into a limited series also raises a tough question: how do you sustain bird attacks over several episodes? Fans will be watching for the answer.

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