'The Birds' Remake Hires New Director

The remake of The Birds, which we learned several months ago had hit a brick wall, may have found a way around it. Martin Campbell (Casino Royale, the upcoming Green Lantern) is no longer the director of record, having been replaced by Dennis Iliadis. Campbell is obviously too entrenched in the DC Comics movie to remake Hitch, so the director of the remake of The Last House on the Left has been tipped for the project by Platinum Dunes.

Pajiba filed the report yesterday, adding that Naomi Watts is probably also out of the running now. There was talk for a while that George Clooney would play the Rod Taylor role, but that was always bullroar. There, I said it: Bullroar. Clooney has zero to gain from doing something like this, however, if they were remaking North by Northwest... I didn't care much for the original Birds, so remaking it affects me not one iota. I think it can be made more convincingly from a technical standpoint now, especially since Universal is pumping $60 million into it and turning it into a R-rated flick, which is what this remake should have been all along.

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Tippi Hedren Calls 'Birds' Remake "Insulting"

I wonder where the outrage was when Tippi Hedren appeared in a made-for-TV version of Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt. That's a better film than The Birds, the movie that made Hedren a star back in the 1960s. Maybe it's because she appeared in one Hitch original and not the other that Hedren's terse comments about the proposed remake of The Birds seems so hypocritical.

It's still unclear whether Platinum Dunes will go through with the update, which is rumored to have the attention of Naomi Watts. Earlier this year, producer Brad Fuller vented his frustrations about The Birds not coming together cleanly. "That's so hard...to get the script right," he admitted. "We continue, and we struggle, and I just don't have a ton to say about it until we've got something good." But if it does happen - and I'm sure Platinum Dunes (a sub-division of Michael Bay's Hair is Awesome, Inc.) will find a way since it paid handsomely for the rights - Hedren would find it "insulting."

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Remake of Hitchcock's 'The Birds' Not Taking Flight

You don't need to stay around The Big Picture very long to figure out that I'm a major Hitchcock fan. Of his American films, I'd say I own all but about six, and this is a guy who put out nearly a movie a year for close to 30 years. One that I don't own is The Birds, which I've never really cared for. It's Hitchcock trying to remain Hitchcock in my mind, and it's the beginning of the end.

So there's been talk about remaking The Birds for a few years, which is fine. It's not Psycho or Vertigo. And the guys at Platinum Dunes had apparently been lining up Naomi Watts to play the Tippi Hedren role and there were whispers that George Clooney would co-star. I believe the first part of that and not the second. But now it looks like The Birds might not happen, after all. CHUD talked to Brad Fuller and Andrew Form on the set of A Nightmare on Elm Street, and they're definitely having problems mounting the movie they want to make. "We keep trying, but I don't know," Fuller began. "That's so hard...to get the script right. We continue, and we struggle, and I just don't have a ton to say about it until we've got something good."

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'The Birds' Remake Might Be in 3-D

An eye-opening development from an unlikely source on the remake of Alfred Hitchock's The Birds. During an interview with Market Saw, actress Brenna Lee Roth revealed not only some actors attached to the project but also a new twist on the familiar old classic.

"I am in talks with the producer of The Birds and he said he wanted to do it 3D, but I don't really know any more about it," said Roth, who added, "Yes, [George Clooney and Naomi Watts are] both attached so far. Should be fun, I hear from the producers that Clooney is a prankster, and well...so am I, so it should be fun."

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Rumor Patrol: George Clooney in 'The Birds' Remake?

When was the first time we heard about a remake of Hitchcock's The Birds? It was at least two years ago, I think, but as far as we know the remake hasn't begun production and is still very much in the dartboard stage. Naomi Watts has been linked to the famed Tippi Hedren role for some time, and I have no doubt she'll make the film after her pregnancy.The trouble with that is the release date for The Birds is still listed as July 3rd, 2009 on imdb. That won't happen, and they should really update that info. Naomi's second child is due in December, and the role is physically demanding enough that she's not going to shoot it anytime between now and then, and one would expect, for at least two months or so after that. So unless they go with a different actress because they're so committed to July 2009, it just can't happen. Watts wouldn't even be able to film anything until at least mid-February, you'd believe. And I have a hard time believing Universal wants to release a film on the July 4th weekend that was shooting at most four months earlier. That doesn't give them a lot of time for post-production, test screenings, marketing and all the rest. But there's a new Birds rumor coming from an original Birds cast member: Rod Taylor, who played the male lead Mitch Brenner in the film, tells The Daily Express, "I often cringe when I hear mention of remakes but I'll hold judgment, especially since I've been told Clooney's the favourite."Now, of course, this is the first we've heard of George Clooney being involved, or even being mentioned as a possibility. Shock Till You Drop reached out to co-producer Brad Fuller, who says he's never heard of it, either, so it's probably completely bogus.And it's the wrong Hitchcock remake for Clooney, anyway. I've banged this drum for years: If you're going to stick him in a Hitchcock remake, it's North by Northwest.