Actress Mia Maestro (Photo by Mark Davis/Getty Images) (2013 Getty Images)
Actress Mía Maestro has landed the lead female role in the new television series, “The Strain,” created by famed Mexican director Guillermo del Toro.
Based on Del Toro’s book trilogy with Chuck Hogan first published in 2009, the story centers on a vampire virus that infects New York and Ephraim "Eph" Goodweather, a Center for Disease Control doctor who investigates the case.
Maestro, an “Alias” and "Twlight" alum, will play Dr. Nora Martinez, a brilliant biochemist, and Eph’s love interest.
Shooting of the first chapter is scheduled for September 2013. The FX channel landed the series and has ordered production of a pilot episode that will be co-written, directed and produced by Del Toro himself.
Del Toro said he believes his trilogy has the potential to air from three to five seasons, and that he would love to direct as many episodes as his busy schedule permits.
In "The Strain," the first book of the trilogy, a Boeing 777 lands in Washington D.C. with all the passengers dead and signs saying a strange being had been aboard the plane. Then it is discovered that the killings were the work of vampires seeking to end civilization.
"We started receiving offers for movies and TV rights after the publication of the first book but we didn't want to do anything because we didn't want that train of thought to influence the way we were writing the books," Del Toro told Deadline.
The Mexican said that the first book can cover a season, as can the second entitled "The Fall." In the case of the third, "The Night Eternal," he believes it could be extended to two seasons since there are stories that he cut from the book and kept for the series. Del Toro is best know for directing "The Devil's Backbone," "Hellboy" and the 2006 blockbuster "Pan's Labyrinth."
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