Guillermo Del Toro don’t quit. Dude has approximately fifty-nine kajillion projects in the works — hell, he just set up “Monster” at HBO — and with “Pacific Rim” gearing up to land this summer, and “Crimson Peak” to shoot early next year, he’s keeping busy. In between, he’ll be bringing his book series “The Strain” to the small screen, and he’s found his leading man.
Corey Stoll (aka Hemingway in “Midnight In Paris” aka one of the great things about the first season of “House Of Cards“) has landed the lead role in the FX series. He’ll be playing Dr. Ephraim Goodweather (good name), the head of the Center for Disease Control, who has to put together an assorted batch of folks to help save humanity when a strain of vampirism breaks out. Stoll vs. vampires? Yeah, we’re in. And while it could be argued the genre has been sucked dry (ha) between “Twilight,” “True Blood,” “Vampire Diaries” and others, it seems the thirst (double ha) is still there, and hopefully Del Toro has some fresh vision.
GDT will direct the pilot that he co-wrote with Chuck Hogan, and he’s already got a three to five season arc mapped out to prevent the show from overstaying its welcome. It will have to get past pilot stage first, but FX has apparently tossed $500,000 to the show to help with creature design, while writers are banging out scripts, expecting a series order. [Deadline]
Frankly, you had me at Corey freakin' Stoll. But there's so much else in the above to recommend at the least the pilot – GDT, Chuck Hogan…and vampires. I'm in.