With "The Vampire Diaries" coming to an end soon and "The Originals" having an uncertain future, television needs a new vampire series that viewers can sink their teeth into. Alas, Fox has bagged the rights to make a series based on the book trilogy "The Passage" by Justin Cronin.
Fox has ordered a pilot for the TV adaptation of "The Passage," with "Friday Night Lights" writer Liz Heldens commission to write the pilot and "Cloverfield" director Matt Reeves attached to helm the series starter, TVLine reported.
According to Deadline, "The Passage" has been in the works as early as 2007 when Fox 2000 acquired rights to the first book, which at the time was still half-written. In a fierce bidding war between studios and top producers, Fox nabbed it for $1.75 million and assigned to Scott Free studios to produce. It was later decided that "The Passage" would be better suited as a TV series, thus, the project was handed over to 20th Century Fox TV. Heldens was particularly chosen to write the script as she is a huge fans of the books.
The New York Times bestselling story starts as a "character-drive government conspiracy thriller," and works its way into post-apocalyptic world where virus-infected vampires roam the Earth and surviving human colonies come together to survive. The story covers a span of 93 years and centers on a 6-year-old girl named Amy Bellafonte who is said to be humanity's last hope.
"The Passage," the first book in the trilogy, is divided into two - the first covers the origins of the virus and its eventual outbreak and the second takes place 93 years after the infection.
As a novel, Justin Cronin's "The Passage" earned high reviews from readers and critics. It was dubbed as one of the "creepiest books of 2010" and earning Cronin comparisons to Michael Crichton. Renowned author Stephen King described "The Passage" as enthralling and said it "has the vividness that only epic works of fantasy and imagination can achieve."
No release date for "The Passage" series or news about its cast has been confirmed so far.