Bay and "The Birds"

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Hollywood Wiretap's Nancy Vialatte has a story up about Michael Bay's Platinum Dunes signing with Rogue, the Focus equivalent of Dimension, to provide relatively inexpensive horror flicks (under $25 million) on a three-year, first-look basis. Her piece isn't exactly a grabber, but it reminded me that Platinum is also at work on a remake of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds for Universal.

I gather that Bay (still at work on Transformers) won't be directing The Birds, but he should. Because if he does it right -- and I believe Bay has it in him to be much better and more respected than the "Michael Bay" of legend -- he could redeem himself. And if it's done wrong (by Bay or whomever, and obviously that potential is there, given the cheap-trick tendencies of today's horror filmmakers), it'll be wretched and godawful. All the director has to do is pull back and think austere.

TMZ's "City of Industry" column (Claude Brodesser-Akner, right?) has reported, she says, that Naomi Watts "could" be offered the Tippi Hedren "Melanie Daniels" role. Wait...didn't I read that the Platium Birds is going to be based on the Daphne du Maurier novella rather than the Hitchcock film? That's what everyone always says when they're doing a remake of a classic film -- we're basing on the book, not aping a famous film, etc.