Snook is attached to play a mother caught in an Alaska murder mystery and to executive produce the proposed limited series, which HBO has taken into development rather than ordered for production.
HBO has taken The Birds into development, with Sarah Snook attached to star as Myra Massey and executive produce the proposed limited series, Deadline said on October 27. The project reimagines Alfred Hitchcock’s film and Daphne du Maurier’s story in present-day Alaska. HBO’s commitment is to develop the project, not yet to make a series.
The role would bring Snook back to HBO after Succession, in which she played Shiv Roy. She received three Emmy nominations for that role and won in 2023.
The Birds had already spent more than a year in development at Universal Global Television and its predecessor. Deadline covered the project in May, before the studio took it to market over the summer and HBO took it into development.
In the proposed story, Myra returns home to Alaska with her young daughter to escape a bitter custody battle. She secretly investigates a childhood friend’s suspicious disappearance. With a killer at large and threats against her mounting, Myra must protect her daughter from deadly bird attacks inexplicably tied to the crime.
The new setting and protagonist depart from both earlier versions. Du Maurier’s story, first published in 1952, follows farmhand Nat Hocken and his family as birds attack their community in postwar Cornwall. Hitchcock’s 1963 film moves the unexplained attacks to Bodega Bay, California. Its central character, socialite Melanie Daniels, travels there after meeting lawyer Mitch Brenner.
Tom Spezialy writes the pilot—the opening episode—and executive produces alongside Snook. He previously executive produced HBO’s Watchmen and The Leftovers. Fellow executive producer David Heyman also has an HBO connection through the network’s upcoming Harry Potter series.
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Heyman and Danny Samit executive produce through Heyday Television, Heyman’s joint venture with Universal Global Television. Jennifer Gabler Rawlings of Omni Artists is also an executive producer. Universal Global Television is set to serve as co-studio with HBO.
Universal Pictures, which produced the 1963 film, shares rights to the title with the Du Maurier Estate.
Earlier attempts to revisit The Birds did not come to fruition: a film remake announced in 2007 and a BBC series announced in 2017.
The current project still needs HBO to order the series before it can proceed to production. There is no announced production or release date.
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