Breakout star Corey Stoll has nabbed a nice gig for himself! The ‘House of Cards’ actor has just signed on to star in Guillermo del Toro’s new pilot ‘The Strain.’

Prior to taking on the role as Rep. Peter Russo on Netflix’ ‘House of Cards,’ Stoll was known for his work on the short lived NBC series ‘Law & Order: LA’ as Detective Tomas ‘TJ’ Jaruszalski, as Hemmingway in the film ‘Midnight in Paris’ and as Zev Vendel in ‘The Bourne Legacy.’

In the pilot for ‘The Strain,’ he will be taking on the lead role of Dr. Ephraim Goodweather, the head of the Center for Disease Control Canary Team which is based out of New York City. In the pilot, Dr. Goodweather and his team are called to investigate a viral outbreak that is connected to an ancient and evil strain of vampirism. As the viral strain spreads, the team, along with a few New Yorkers, wages a war to defend humanity.

Del Toro announced Stoll’s casting saying:

“To me, having the right lead for ‘The Strain’ series was perhaps the most important creative task. To be able to secure the perfect actor in Corey Stoll sets the project on the right track. To embody a character like Ephraim Goodweather — who transitions through every emotion and situation imaginable and who anchors the narrative of the series — requires amazing talent and craft. Corey has both in spades, as he has demonstrated over and over again.”

‘The Strain’ is based on a series of 3 novels written by del Toro and Chuck Hogan, both of whom wrote the script for the pilot. Carlton Cuse (‘Lost,’ ‘Bates Motel’) helped with the adaptation and not only will executive produce the pilot, but will also serve as the showrunner if the pilot is picked up to series.

With del Toro also serving as director, there is good reason to think that FX will give the pilot a series order. Not only does the pilot have an impressive pedigree behind the cameras, FX apparently has shelled out $500,000 to help with the creature design for the pilot and they have writers working on scripts as they wait for the green light. In fact, Hogan has already mapped out the series for a 3-5 season run.

Even with vampires on the verge of being passé with shows and films like ‘The Twilight Saga,’ ‘True Blood,’ and ‘The Vampire Diaries,’ this project sounds like a hit. Hopefully del Toro won’t be too busy with his other projects and ‘The Strain’ will receive the proper attention it deserves from the director.

We’ll keep you updated with more news of the development of ‘The Strain’ as it comes in.

 

Source: Deadline