"The Strain" presents an unsettling tale of a vampiric virus on the loose in New York City. It was about four years ago that the story started taking shape in Del Toro's imagination, and his inspiration was a surprising one.
"I was watching 'The Wire' on cable and I was addicted to it," the filmmaker said. "I really felt caught up in this idea of doing a procedural, a limited cable series, which married the ideas of biology, of anatomy, of vampirism and evolved through the seasons into the spiritual and mythological aspects of the theme -- and always with the everyday details and prosaic settings, and the rhythms of a procedural."
The plan at first was to present "The Strain" as a television series, limited to three seasons, and Del Toro was gripped with excitement as he got deeper into the tale.
"I prepared a 'bible' of the three seasons and went to the network that I had a deal with, which was Fox. They read the bible and listened to the pitch with the opening scene of the 747 stopping mysteriously on the runway at JFK and the mystery that followed, and I was very happy with it."
And how did the network respond? "They said two things: 'It's too expensive, first of all, and what we would really love is a vampire comedy.' That was my first and only encounter with television. I retreated quickly."
There's a surge in vampires in pop culture right now, a sort of crimson wave of interest with "True Blood" pumping up the ratings on HBO and a second "Twilight" film due this year. The Swedish bloodsucking romance "Let the Right One In" was a hit at the Tribeca Film Festival last year, and an English-language adaptation is scheduled for next year. There's also talk of film revivals for "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Dark Shadows." And, on cable and home video, "30 Days of Night" and the "Underworld" films are still in circulation.
The vampires of "The Strain" are not emo pretty boys, not with skin that, on close inspection, reminds one young human character of a "pickled pig fetus" he saw back in science class. "The idea is to keep reminding people that these are undead things. To start with biology and then also help the audience make sense of all the vampire traits that they already know," Del Toro said.
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