Guillermo del Toro Adapting 'The Strain' at FX With 'Lost's' Carlton Cuse

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Guillermo del Toro

FX is going into business with Guillermo del Toro and Lost's Carlton Cuse.

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The male-leaning network is near a deal for a pilot order to The Strain, an adaptation of the book trilogy by del Toro and Chuck Hogan, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.

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First published in 2009, the series revolves around a vampire virus that infects New York and the CDC doctor, Ephraim "Eph" Goodweather, who investigates the case.

Del Toro and Hogan, who co-penned the three-book series first published in 2009, will co-write the pilot with Lost's Cuse on board to help develop the project should it go to series and serve as an executive producer and showrunner.

Sequels to the Strain include 2010's The Fall and the final installment, 2011's The Night Eternal.

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The project comes two days after the Oscar-nominated writer-director behind films including Pan's Labrynth and Hellboy -- alongside Southland scribe Sara Gran -- optioned Corrine May Botz's Nutshell Studies to HBO. That project, which del Toro will serve as an EP and director on, is described as a Hitchcockian drama about a 1950s small-town housewife who becomes obsessed with solving brutal crimes.

For Cuse's part, the showrunner already has Psycho prequel Bates Motel set up at A&E, which the network ordered straight to series earlier this year.

The Strain joins FX's previous pilot orders including Bronx Warrants and The Bridge, with Diane Kruger on board.

Email: Lesley.Goldberg@thr.com; Twitter: @Snoodit