A Hitchcock classic is headed back to the screen. HBO is developing The Birds as a limited series, with Sarah Snook set to star in the lead role and executive produce. The project is inspired by Alfred Hitchcock’s landmark 1963 film and by the Daphne du Maurier novella that inspired it.
Snook will play Myra Massey, a woman escaping a bitter custody battle who returns to her hometown with her young daughter while quietly looking into the suspicious disappearance of a childhood friend. According to the show’s description, “with a killer on the loose and personal threats mounting, Myra fights to protect her daughter against a terrifying new menace: vicious, deadly bird attacks inexplicably tied to the crime.” Like Hitchcock’s film, the series is a loose take on du Maurier’s story, which was first published in 1952 before the 1963 film turned it into a horror milestone.
The pilot was written by Tom Spezialy, a veteran of HBO’s The Leftovers, who will executive produce alongside David Heyman and Danny Samit of Heyday Television and Jennifer Gabler Rawlings. HBO will co-produce with Universal Global Television, and the rights to The Birds are controlled by Universal Pictures and the du Maurier estate. Variety reports the package was first taken out to buyers over the summer before landing at HBO.
The series marks a return to HBO for Snook, who won an Emmy for playing Shiv Roy on Succession. She is also an Emmy nominee this year for Peacock’s All Her Fault, another Universal production. The Birds is in development now, and no premiere date has been set.