Director Guillermo Del Toro wanted to see a version of the critically acclaimed series, “The Wire” mixed with vampires come to a television screen near you. Del Toro collaborated with author Chuck Hogan to create a series Bible for the proposed television project and took the series to Fox three years ago.
Speaking at last weekend’s Fangoria’s Weekend of Horror, Del Toro said that he thought we was onto an amazing idea for a long-running television series.
“We started collaborating on it about three yeas ago,” Del Toro said, according to web site io9. “Originally I wrote an extended [series] bible for Fox TV. It was a long-form narrative, because I was completely addicted to The Wire. And I thought what if we bring that kind of reality into a vampiric pandemic. I went to Fox with a 12-page proposal. And they said, “We like it. Can you turn it into a comedy?” And I f*****g grabbed my ticket and went away.”
The proposal eventually became the recently released “The Strain.” But that wasn’t before Del Toro considered other options.
“I couldn’t find any other format. I didn’t want to do it as a movie, because then I would have to shorten the character arcs. It would be the same set of problems. I knew there was some violence and brutality in the proposal that I wanted to try out. And cable may have allowed me to do it. I find cable these days to actually be much more free than the movies. And [when you’re making a movie] they’re always trying to do everything PG-13, so f**k that s**t.”
“The Strain” is now in bookstores, the first in a trilogy of novels.
As for any similarities between “The Strain” and Fox’s television series, “Fringe,” Del Toro said, “I pitched it to Fox four plus years ago, so if you see anything to do with Fringe, either it’s a coincidence, or blame Fox. Because the [Strain] pitch opens with a 747 stopping dead in the middle of the runway. The CVC comes in and opens the door, and everyone is dead. So call Fox if you have any complaints, I myself don’t think twice about it.”
And don’t forget–we’re giving away two copies of “The Strain” from now until Saturday at midnight Pacific Time.
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