Los Angeles, April 26 (Reuters): The Birds, Alfred Hitchcock?s classic 1963 horror tale, looks to be taking flight again as a Universal Pictures remake.

Filmmaker Michael Bay?s Platinum Dunes production label is in negotiations to make the update with producer Peter Guber though his Mandalay Pictures banner.

The new version would be based on the short story by Daphne Du Maurier, to which Universal owns the rights and which inspired Hitchcock?s original movie.

Tippi Hedren starred in the 1963 thriller about increasingly vicious birds that terrorise a small town.

It won?t be the first time Universal, which was Hitchcock?s home for the latter part of the producer-director's career, has been part of a remake of the master.

In 1998, Gus Van Sant directed a scene-for-scene remake of Psycho for the studio. That same year, Warner Bros. Pictures and Koppelson Entertainment turned out A Perfect Murder, based on the play that inspired Hitchcock?s Dial M for Murder.

And at Warner Bros. ? underscoring the rage for Hitchcock remakes ? the studio is mounting a new version of Strangers on a Train, based on the Patricia Highsmith novel that was the basis for the Hitchcock film.