FX grant Guillermo del Toro's THE STRAIN pilot a full season

Guillermo del Toro is known as a maestro of supernatural cinema thanks to Pan's Labyrinth and the Hellboy films, but now he's coming to the small-screen with an adaptation of the 2009 novel he co-wrote with Chuck Hogan called The Strain. It was also adapted into a 2011 comic-book. Carlton Cuse (Lost, Bates Motel) will serve as showrunner, with del Toro having directed the pilot and potentially returning for an occasional episode.

The show stars Corey Stoll (House of Cards), Kevin Durand (Legion) and Mia Maestro (Twilight), but John Hurt's (Alien, Hellboy) character in the pilot will apparently be recast. I'm unsure if this means Hurt's scenes will be re-shot with another actor, or if audiences will simply have to accept another face as Professor Abraham Setrakian come episode 2.

FX have ordered a 13-episode season of the show, which revolves around a virus that infects New York after a passenger jet touches down in JFK, turning people into hideous parasitic vampires.

The Strain débuts on FX in July 2014, and is intended to run for no more than three to five seasons.