63 Years Later, Thriller Masterpiece Officially Getting Brand-New Reboot

Looking to iconic properties from the past to inspire new projects might feel like a contemporary trend, but there are decades of Hollywood history in which movies have become so famous that many audiences don’t know that those stories were based on books. Take, for example, Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, which is one of the most seminal entries in the horror genre. While many of us are well aware of the things Norman Bates carried out in the Bates Motel, not all of us know that the 1960 movie is actually based on the 1959 book of the same name by author Robert Bloch. Another classic Hitchcock film was based on a book, and it’s about to get a new adaptation.

As confirmed by Deadline, there’s a new adaptation of The Birds on the way that is set to star Succession‘s Sarah Snook. Rather than being a direct remake, the project is described as being somewhat of a reimagining, instead adapting Daphne du Maurier’s original short story. Additionally, the project is a limited series, which will require the terror to be stretched out to fill a longer runtime.

In Hitchcock’s movie, without much rhyme or reason, thousands of birds attack the residents of a small community and, much like their mysterious arrival, they vanish for unknown reasons. Deadline describes the new limited series, “Inspired by the film and Daphne du Maurier’s short story it was loosely based on, The Birds introduces traveling magistrate Myra Massey (Snook) as she returns to her isolated Alaskan hometown for a routine presumptive death hearing, expecting a simple cold case. Instead, she finds her childhood friend’s bullet-ridden body. When Myra is forced to step outside her role as judge to untangle the mystery, nature itself turns hostile with a wave of bird attacks. Now, Myra isn’t just trying to close a case, she’s fighting to survive in a place where death lurks in both the shadows and the skies.”

Last June, Sue Gibbs, President of Universal Studio Group’s UCP and UIS, clarified that the project would not be a remake of Hitchcock’s film.

“We’re going back to the source material, the Daphne du Maurier novella and using that as inspiration,” she explained in a SXSW London panel. “And at its heart, it’s looking at when nature turns on you. Obviously, with climate change that is very timely.”

There have been a number of attempts over the years to revive the property, both as a feature film and for the small screen. The closest we’ve gotten to any continuation was the 1994 made-for-TV sequel The Birds II: Land’s End, which had little narrative connection outside of it similarly featuring birds attacking a community.