Back in September we found out some great news that Guillermo del Toro’s successful vampire trilogy was headed to the small screen with a TV series over at Fox. Once they greenlit a pilot, The Strain was officially on its way. Incase you aren’t familiar with the novels written by Del Toro and Chuck Hogan; they have successfully made vampires scary again.
For so long now we have been given high maintenance vampires that are too worried about their hair. And I think a lot of people have forgotten that a vampire is something that is supposed to be truly feared. Del Toro brought that fear back in terrifying fashion with The Strain trilogy as his vampires show no remorse and have every intention on wiping out the entire human race. Not only are they terrifying, but the creature design that Del Toro came up with for these blood sucking creatures are a breathe of fresh air in the genre.
A TV series is exactly what these novels needed. Here is the latest on the project from Guillermo del Toro.
“We’re planning to shoot the pilot in August. Pacific Rim comes out in July. Right after “Pacific Rim” we go into pilot shooting. We are already prepping the pilot starting next week. The pilot has been approved so it’s green-lit. It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when. Our expectations are for FX to move ahead with the series next Fall and Winter and for the series to air in 2014.”
“Basically I’m trying to do what I do in my movies which is to show it as a reality, but as a reality that is stylized. It’s not like “CSI” or “The Wire,” it’s real but it feels a little stylized. But the way the camera work will be is very realistic. We want to keep the camera very documentary even if the look of the show is not. The look of the show is very designed. The style of the camera and the storytelling will be very loose. It will evolve from that feel of reality, and little by little we want to evolve into more stylish, horror feel that requires smoother camera moves, more suspense and atmosphere-driven moments so it will be a mixture. I don’t think that mixture has been seen a lot on TV.”
I have every bit of faith in Del Toro and will back anything his genius mind comes up with. It’s also great seeing that Fox is letting Del Toro handle his own work so we can rest assure that this will be a faithful adaptation of the novels.
For those of you who have read the novels, are you excited to see this trilogy come to life on TV?
Sounds like one to look forward to.
2014… I don’t think I can wait that long, haha!
Well until then we still have the books etc.
Yea it’s quite a ways away but the books will do for now.
Don’t forget also Darkhorse comics is currently doing the Strain on its comic book pages.
Very good point about the vampires. Shit like Twilight and True Blood really try to dress vampires up and completely destroy any fear related to vampires.
Can’t wait to see how it turns out.
I did like the vampires from Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, super detailed CGI just explodes in your face. Would have been nuts in 3D. The movie as a whole though, eh.
Exactly. I can assure you that Del Toro’s vampires are not ones to be messed with! I never saw Vampire Hunter because of all the bad reviews. At least the Vamps looked cool though!
Haha yeah, that’s all it really had goin for it. That and the axe choreography was pretty insane.
Darkhorse Comics is currently doing The Strain on it’s comic book pages. So far they’ve published #1-6. #7 comes out in December. They plan on doing the entire trilogy to its comic book pages.
Hell ya I checked out #1 it’s very solid!
I am excited, it will be nice to have non-standard vampires on TV and as long as the series doesn’t have lame special effects, it should be awesome. I loved the books but feared they would be limited by being made into films. TV series = perfect.
Same here, I’m a huge fan of the novels and there is just no way to do them justice with a movie alone. I’m just hoping for The Walking Dead level of gore and special effects but that’s probably wishful thinking because AMC is the shit.