There are some directors whose work can’t be easily rebooted, and Alfred Hitchcock is one of them. No surprise then that the long talked about remake of The Birds is still firmly stuck in development.

If a talented director like Gus Van Sant can fail so miserable with his almost shot for shot version of Psycho a few years ago what hope does this have? Producers Brad Fuller and Andrew Form (Texas Chainsaw remake, Friday The 13th remake) have told Horror Squad that one key reason for the project stalling is the nature of the menace -

“It’s the limitations of the birds… What do they do? They peck and poke. And poop. You start with the sh***ing and you build up to pecking and then they poke. So it’s hard. …It doesn’t feel like that’s up next for us.”

Of course part of the brilliance of Hitchcock was his ability to create tension and fear amongst viewers without resorting to the gratuitous gore that is so often prominent amongst the horror films of today. Maybe they are right in thinking that pecking pigeons and clawing crows would struggle to scare modern audiences but I think this quote really shows a lack of imagination towards the art of filmmaking.