EXCLUSIVE: Emmy-winning Succession star Sarah Snook is returning to HBO as the star of The Birds, a limited series inspired by Alfred Hitchcock’s film and Daphne du Maurier’s novella. HBO has nabbed the high-profile project, which was taken out by Universal Global Television this past summer, for development. It comes from two other key creative auspices with ties to HBO: Tom Spezialy, who executive produced the network’s Watchmen and The Leftovers, and David Heyman, who executive produces its upcoming Harry Potter series.
As Deadline reported in May, The Birds limited series, whose pilot is written by Spezialy, 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, led by a new female protagonist, Myra Massey (Snook).
Escaping a bitter custody battle, Myra (Snook) returns home with her young daughter, secretly probing a childhood friend’s suspicious 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.
Spezialy and Snook executive produce alongside Heyman and Danny Samit via Heyday Television, Heyman‘s joint venture with UGT, and Jennifer Gabler Rawlings of Omni Artists. Universal Global Television, a division of Universal Studio Group, will serve as a co-studio with HBO. Its sibling movie studio, Universal Pictures, produced the 1963 feature and owns the rights to the title alongside the Du Maurier Estate. And UGT’s TV sibling Universal Television produces HBO’s hit period drama The Gilded Age.
The Birds, which had been in development at UGT and predecessor UIS for more than a year, marks the latest attempt to revisit The Birds, which included a feature remake announced in 2007 with Naomi Watts attached to star and Martin Campbell to direct, and a BBC series announced in 2017 written by Irish playwright Conor McPherson, none of which came to fruition.
Snook, who received three Emmy nominations for her role as Shiv Roy on HBO’s Succession, winning in 2023, is coming off her starring role on UGT’s hit Peacock limited series All Her Fault, which earned her another Emmy nomination. Snook, who won a Tony Award last year for The Picture of Dorian Gray and a 2025 AACTA Best Actress Award for the Oscar-nominated animated feature Memoir of a Snail, is repped by UTA, Omni Artists, Hansen Jacobson Teller as well as Shanahan Management in her native Australia.
As an executive producer of HBO’s Watchmen, Spezialy shared in the show’s 2020 Outstanding Limited Series Emmy Award. More recently, Spezialy executive produced the upcoming Prime Video series Blade Runner 2099, a TV followup to another cinematic classic, Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner. He is repped by WME, Manage-ment and Jackoway Austen Tyerman.
Heyman is repped by WME and Goodman, Genow, Schenkman, Smelkinson & Christopher.