63 years after one of Alfred Hitchcock’s best movies was released, this frightful feature is officially being remade into a TV show.

In 1963, Universal Pictures released The Birds, Hitchcock’s film adaptation of the same-named 1952 short story by Daphne du Maurier. Now word’s come in that a TV version of The Birds is moving forward, and one of the stars of HBO’s Succession is attached to star in it.

According to Deadline, Sarah Snook, who played Shiv in the critically acclaimed premium cable series, will lead The Birds limited series. Tom Spezialy of The Leftovers and Watchmen fame is writing the small-screen remake, which hails from Universal International Studios and Heyday Television. The project is currently being taken out to buyers.

This new take on The Birds is described as a “visceral, present-day reimagining of Hitchcock’s classic set in Spezialy’s home state of Alaska with a murder mystery at the center and new characters.” That includes Snook’s Myra Massey, a traveling magistrate who returns to her isolated hometown for what she expects to be a “routine presumptive death hearing.” Instead, she discovers her childhood friend has been shot to death, requiring her to solve this mystery and grapple with the series of bird attacks that plague the town.

So, just like Hitchcock did with The Birds movie (particularly its ending), this limited series is taking some major creative liberties with the core premise. That includes highlighting that Myra will not be a damsel in distress, in contrast with Tippi Hedren’s Melanie Daniels. This news follows a year after it was first revealed that Universal International Studios was developing a TV version of The Birds.

This isn’t the first attempt at re-adapting The Birds following Hitchcock’s movie. In 2007, a film remake directed by Martin Campbell and starring Naomi Watts was announced, but it never moved forward. Then in 2017, the BBC announced it was developing a TV miniseries written by Conor McPherson that would more closely adhere to du Maurier’s original story. That too failed to progress past the conceptual stages.

In addition to The Birds, which Hitchcock described as the “most terrifying motion picture” he ever made, earning positive critical reception, it also netted Hedren the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actress, albeit in a tie with Ursula Andress and Elke Sommer. Ub Iwerks was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Special Effects for his work on The Birds, but Cleopatra ultimately won that category.

In 2016, The Birds was selected by the Library of Congress to be preserved in its National Film Registry. While there are many interesting behind-the-scenes facts about The Birds, not all of them are positive. The most notable example is how more than 50 years after the movie was released, Hedren claimed that Hitchcock sexually harassed her during filming.

The unveiling of Snook’s involvement in The Birds comes a year after she starred in Peacock’s All Her Fault, which adapted the same-named novel by Andrea Mara. The limited series earned two Golden Globe nominations for Best Limited Series, Anthology Series, or Motion Picture Made for Television, and Best Female Actor in a Limited Series, Anthology Series, or Motion Picture Made for Television. 2025 also saw Snook performing in a Broadway production of The Picture of Dorian Gray following the show’s West End run the year prior.