Sean Astin Cast in Guillermo del Toro's THE STRAIN

Goonies and The Lord of the Rings star Sean Astin has been cast in the TV series adaptation of Guillermo del Toro's The Strain. Executive producer Carlton Cuse made the casting announcement on Twitter. 

The series is set up at FX and Del Toro is co-writing the script with the book's author, Chuck Hogan. Del Toro is also planning to direct the series pilot. 

The Strain book trilogy is a vampire bioterror thriller that tells the story of an outbreak in the U.S. of a virus that either kills those who are exposed to it or turns them into vampires. This is a very hardcore gritty vampire story that real vampire fans can enjoy. 

The last I heard, the plan was to turn the books into a three season event series. Here's a detailed description from the book:

High-concept thriller with a supernatural edge from world-famous director, whose films include Pan's Labyrinth and Hellboy. A plane lands at JFK and mysteriously 'goes dark', stopping in the middle of the runway for no apparent reason, all lights off, all doors sealed. The pilots cannot be raised. When the hatch above the wing finally clicks open, it soon becomes clear that everyone on board is dead -- although there is no sign of any trauma or struggle. Ephraim Goodweather and his team from the Center for Disease Control must work quickly to establish the cause of this strange occurrence before panic spreads. The first thing they discover is that four of the victims are actually still alive. But that's the only good news. And when all two hundred corpses disappear from various morgues around the city on the same night, things very rapidly get worse. Soon Eph and a small band of helpers will find themselves battling to protect not only their own loved ones, but the whole city, against an ancient threat to humanity.