Guillermo Del Toro And Carlton Cuse Talk to Us About FX New Series ‘The Strain’

We recently had the privilege to interview both executive producer/director Guillermo del Toro and executive producer/show runner Carlton Cuse about the upcoming FX’s series ‘The Strain’. Read interview highlights below or check out Kristyns full length interview right here!

Being that both del Toro and author Chuck Hogan worked together to adapt the novels to comic book form with Dark Horse, Del Toro felt the transition to TV series was very smooth, especially with the guidance of experienced show runner, Carlton Cuse.

When discussing what initially drew him into the project, Carlton Cuse said ” I had read the first Strain novel as a fan of both Guillermo’s work, and also independently I knew Chuck Hogan, and so I was very curious to see what this collaboration would look like.” He went on to say “I was just intrigued by the subject matter.”

The story of The Strain has a deep mythology around it and viewers are sure to be curious how closely the series will follow what takes place in the books. Cuse tells us “We basically follow the narrative of the first book in the first season. The plan is that the show will run somewhere between three and five seasons, and as we work out the mythology and the storytelling for season two we’ll have a better idea of exactly how long our journey is going to be. But it won’t be more than five seasons, we’re definitely writing to an endpoint, and we’re following the path as established in Guillermo and Chuck’s novels.

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Like any good executive producer, Guillermo del Toro is very actively engaged in the production. He comments “I have made it a point to stay obsessively involved in supervising every single of the effects in the series, supervising makeup effects, color correction, this and that, and I feel this is our baby, neither just Chuck or Carlton’s or myself, is the three of us. It’s like Three Men and a Baby for vampires, and I think that it will be essential for me to continue to be involved in that way.”

The Strain had a very long pre-production period, but not without a good reason. del Toro reveals “I asked FX to give us a long pre-production period so I could really plan out the makeup effects, the creature effects, the visual effects, all of which I have big experience with, in order to try to bring to the pilot a big scope feel to the series doing sophisticated effects and some set pieces, while staying on a fiscally responsible budget and managing. Cuse adds “we needed a vast amount of lead time to not only do creature creation, but to do a significant amount of the writing so that we could plan and organize things, because obviously we were working within certain fiscal limitations, but by having all this planning time I think we were able to bring something to television that you just wouldn’t be able to do under normal circumstances. And so we’re incredibly grateful to FX for being so supportive in allowing us our process.”

Check back soon for more coverage on ‘The Strain’ when we catch up with the cast and crew at San Diego Comic-Con! ‘The Strain’ airs Sunday nights at 10p.m. ET.

About Sean McAloon

I am a Philadelphia based journalist, who is obsessed with movies and television. I is also a comic book enthusiast , although i can't keep up with everything. I like to spend my free time trying to working on short films. I currently work as an editor for popculturemadness.com and darkmediaonline.com, focusing on entertainment news, interviews and public relations. I studied business management & marketing at Goldey Beacom College.

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