Remake of Hitchcock's 'The Birds' gets a director and star

Posted Monday, October 22, 2007 at 10:55 AM Central

by Tim Briscoe

Remakes of Hitchcock films are a small genre in themselves. The latest filmmaker to step up for a chance to re-do the Master of Suspense is Kiwi director Martin Campbell.

Campbell has been tapped by Universal Pictures to direct a remake of Hitchcock's 1963 thriller The Birds. Naomi Watts will star in the film, presumably in the role made famous by Tippi Hedren. Reports say the film will stay more true to the original Daphne Du Maurier novel than Hitch's film.

In 1998, Gus Van Sant did a shot-for-shot remake of Hitchcock's classic Psycho. A Perfect Murder was a remake of Dial M for Murder in that same year. There was a TV remake of Rear Window starring Christopher Reeve in '98 as well.

Michael Bay is producing the new Birds film. Bay has recently produced the horror remakes The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Amityville Horror, and The Hitcher.

Martin Campbell is a busy man these days. He's doing a crime film titled 36 for Paramount. The auteur is also doing an action-thriller called Unstoppable. He has previously directed the Bond films GoldenEye and Casino Royale as well as two recent Zorro movies.