How Guillermo del Toro manages to keep juggling as many fragile plates as he does is beyond me; he’s now deep into the co-writing of his adaptation of The Hobbit, which I’m sure you all know will be broken down into two films; he still has that proposed adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness he’s been talking about for years; he also has a proposed remake/adaptation/ re-imagining/call-it-what-you-will of Frankenstein…and that’s just the short list of what’s keeping him occupied until 2017.
You can now add one more project to the fold, as the Associated Press is reporting del Toro plans to co-write a trilogy of novels with writer Chuck Hogan. The first one out of the gate will be The Strain, which is slated for next summer:
“The idea is epic in scope,” del Toro said in a statement issued Wednesday by publisher William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins. “The trilogy advances in unexpected ways and each book contains unique and surprising revelations about the history, physiology and lore of the vampiric race, tracing its roots all the way back to its Old Testament origins.”
Del Toro does vampires again? You can count me in!
It’ll be great to see a writer of del Toro’s stature branch out into the world of books where he won’t be inhibited by actors, budgets, and the proverbial Hollywood politics and bullshit that bog down most productions.
As for writer Chuck Hogan, he’s best known for titles such as The Killing Moon, Prince of Thieves, and The Blood Artists. Prince of Thieves is currently being adapted into a feature film, starring and directed by Ben Affleck.