Based on a book or not, the concept of remaking/readapting a story Alfred Hitchcock already made is daunting. Look at the relatively recent Netflix movie of Rebecca. That sucked wad according to me. Now, another Daphne du Maurier story is becoming a limited series, this time on HBO. The Birds, which Hitchcock famously brought to screens in 1963, is in development for HBO. Succession‘s Sarah Snook is in talks to star, according to Deadline.
Tom Spezialy, who executive produced the network’s Watchmen and The Leftovers, will executive produce and write the pilot for the miniseries. The series will mix elements from du Maurier’s 1952 novella and Hitchcock’s film. The original story took place in a town besieged by birds that inexplicably start attacking citizens. The official synopsis details “a visceral, present-day reimagining of Hitchcock’s classic with a murder mystery at the center and new characters, led by a new female protagonist, Myra Massey (Snook).”
Myra returns home with her young daughter to look into the mysterious circumstances surrounding a childhood friend’s disappearance. “With a killer on the loose and personal threats mounting, she fights to protect her daughter against a terrifying new menace: vicious, deadly bird attacks inexplicably tied to the crime.”
One of the best things about the Hitchcock, and the novella, is the ambiguity around the avian attack. Over the decades, theories and analyses have attempted to tie it to everything from environmentalism to human bad vibes. The movie itself even has locals from Bodega Bay blaming the “outsider” Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren), as though her mere existence brought the birds. It’s arguably the most horrifying part of the story; nature taking its wrath for no reason at all.
I’m not sure making it more explicitly related to whatever murder mystery is going on does the story a ton of justice. That said, I don’t know anything beyond the plot synopsis. But if the bird attack ends up as a direct result of whatever happened with the friend and/or any conspiracy in the town, I don’t know if it’ll really work. Make the birds unknowable!
We’ll have to wait to see how this version of The Birds takes flight.