Martin Campbell is negotiating to fill Hitchcock's shoes

Naomi Watts, who starred in the hit remake of "King Kong," is about to go ape over Universal's fresh take on "The Birds."

The long-gestating pic has been set up through Michael Bay's Platinum Dunes shingle for some time and Watts involvement is also familiar news, but "The Birds" is beginning to take form, with Martin Campbell in negotiations to direct.

The new "Birds" will return to the Daphne du Maurier short story that spawned Alfred Hitchcock's 1963 classic. That film starred Tippie Hedren as a spoiled socialite who runs afoul (or should that be "a-fowl") of some particularly vicious birds in the coastal town of Bodega Bay.

Stiles White and Juliet Snowden wrote the most recent draft of the script.

While nearly every other film in Hollywood is attempting to rush into production before a possible strike, Variety says that "The Birds" remake is in no such hurry.

Watts, next appearing in "Funny Games," is shooting "The International" with Clive Owen and has also committed to an adaptation of adaptation of Amy Sutherland's "Kicked, Bitten and Scratched: Life and Lessons at the World's Premiere School for Exotic Animal Trainers," set up at First Look.

For his part, Campbell is attached to 20th Century Fox's "Unstoppable" and Paramount's "36." His most recent credit was the hit James Bond reboot "Casino Royale."