HBO lands the project after a summer sale
HBO has acquired The Birds, a limited series drawing on Alfred Hitchcock's 1963 film and Daphne du Maurier's novella, for development. Universal Global Television had taken the high-profile package out this past summer. The project arrives from two creative figures already connected to the network: Tom Spezialy, an executive producer on Watchmen and The Leftovers, and David Heyman, an executive producer on HBO's forthcoming Harry Potter series.[S1][S2][S3][S4][S5][S6]
Spezialy wrote the pilot, which Deadline described in May as a visceral, present-day reimagining of Hitchcock's classic. A murder mystery sits at its center, and the story introduces new characters led by a new female protagonist, Myra Massey.[S1]
A mother, a disappearance and a new menace
Myra, played by Snook, is escaping a bitter custody battle and returns home with her young daughter. There she quietly investigates the suspicious disappearance of a childhood friend. As a killer remains at large and threats against her mount, she struggles to keep her daughter safe from a terrifying new danger: vicious and deadly bird attacks that are inexplicably linked to the crime.[S1]
Producers, studios and earlier attempts
Spezialy and Snook executive produce alongside Heyman and Danny Samit through Heyday Television, Heyman's joint venture with UGT, and Jennifer Gabler Rawlings of Omni Artists. Universal Global Television, part of Universal Studio Group, will be a co-studio with HBO. Its sibling film studio, Universal Pictures, made the 1963 feature and holds the rights to the title together with the Du Maurier Estate. Another UGT television sibling, Universal Television, produces HBO's The Gilded Age.[S1]
Work on the project stretched past a year at UGT and its forerunner UIS. Two earlier attempts to bring the story back never got off the ground: a 2007 feature remake that was to star Naomi Watts under director Martin Campbell, and a 2017 BBC adaptation penned by Irish dramatist Conor McPherson.[S1]
Snook's run of awards and roles
For her portrayal of Shiv Roy in HBO's Succession, Snook received three Emmy nods and took home the trophy in 2023. Her role in UGT's Peacock limited series All Her Fault recently earned her yet another Emmy nomination. In the past year she collected a Tony for The Picture of Dorian Gray and a 2025 AACTA Best Actress honor for the Oscar-nominated animated film Memoir of a Snail. Her representatives are UTA, Omni Artists, Hansen Jacobson Teller and, back in her home country of Australia, Shanahan Management.[S1]
Spezialy was among the executive producers of HBO's Watchmen, which won the 2020 Emmy for Outstanding Limited Series. His more recent credits include executive producing Blade Runner 2099, a Prime Video series that continues Ridley Scott's Blade Runner on television. WME, Manage-ment and Jackoway Austen Tyerman represent him. Heyman's representatives are WME along with Goodman, Genow, Schenkman, Smelkinson & Christopher.[S1]
