Guillermo Del Toro has his hand in more pots than Whinnie the Pooh with the munchies. Along with all the films he is either making or producing, it has just been announced that he’ll be bringing his vampire trilogy, The Strain to TV with the Lost Showrunner, Carlton Cuse.
Del Toro will write, direct and produce the pilot for the new series. He’ll be assisted on writing duties by co-writer Chuck Hogan, who also co-authored the books with him. Cuse will then act as showrunner and executive producer.
Based on what he told Deadline, Del Toro thinks that the books hold enough story to fill 3-5 seasons of television.
Here is the description of the first novel from Deadline:
In the opening book of the series, the 2009 The Strain, a Boeing 777 lands at JFK with no communication or signs of life. Eph Goodweather, who investigates biological threats for the CDC, is called in and discovers all the passengers dead, and signs that a strange being had been aboard the vessel. Soon, he teams with ex-professor and Holocaust survivor Abraham Setrakian and they assemble a ragtag group that represents mankind’s only hope when a swarm of vampires quickly turn civilization into a buffet spread. Fittingly for male-driven FX, unlike the traditional, romanticized portrayals of vampires as tuxedo-clad studs, The Strain‘s bloodsuckers have no seductive powers — they are parasites, husks of their former human form with stingers that drain blood for nourishment, while spreading capillary worms that convert victims into more vampires under the control of The Master.