Guillermo del Toro is one busy guy! Not only is he finishing up post-production on his aliens vs. mechas film ‘Pacific Rim’, he’s also gearing up to direct his next film, the horror movie ‘Crimson Peak’ as well as working on a TV pilot of his book ‘The Strain’ for the FX network which he will also direct. Now it’s been announced that the celebrated genre fave director is working with HBOP to develop a live –action adaptation of the Japanese manga ‘Monster’ by Naoki Urasawa.

‘Monster’ was first published in 1995 and has gone on to have 18 volumes in all. It wasn’t until 2005 that the manga was finally translated to English for distribution in the U.S.

The story centers on Dr. Kenzo Tenma, a brilliant physician who risks his reputation to save a 12 year old child and in doing so, unleashes a Pandora’s Box of conspiracies and horrific serial killings. See, the boy that the good doctor saves ends up to be the most evil sociopath that has ever lived and Kenzo finds himself on a worldwide search to find his patient and battle to stop a plot of mass genocide.

‘Monster’ has made it to the small screen before. In 2004, a 74 episode anime series of the manga was produced which can still be seen on Hulu and iTunes.

The project was originally set up to be developed into a feature film by New Line Cinema but the material was too massive an undertaking for just one film. Having ‘Monster’as a series instead of a single film seems to be the more practical route to go, but it took Urasawa some time to be convinced. Reportedly, del Toro spent a lot of time wooing the author before he was convinced that his creation would be handled properly and to his satisfaction.

Del Toro will be co-writing the story with Steve Thompson who many ‘Doctor Who’ fans know as the writer of the episodes ‘The Curse of the Black Spot’ and ‘Journey to the Center of the TARDIS.’ Thompson has also written a few episodes of the BBC series ‘Sherlock’ and will be writing the pilot himself. Besides writing and executive producing duties, del Toro is also tapped to direct the pilot.

‘Monster’ sounds like an exciting thriller and it will be very interesting to see how the partnership of del Toro and HBO will pan out with this project. But with the famed director at the helm, it not hard to see that this series can easily become a must watch series on HBO.

While no premiere date has been set for the series, ScienceFiction.com will keep you updated with any news that comes in.

 

Source: Deadline