Director del Toro adds book series to busy film schedule

Filmmaker Guillermo del Toro is adding another project to his already busy slate, announcing on Wednesday plans for a trilogy of vampire novels with author Chuck Hogan.

Del Toro, known for his Oscar-winning film Pan's Labyrinth and the hit Hellboy movies, and crime author Hogan hope to publish the first instalment entitled The Strain next summer.

"The trilogy advances in unexpected ways and each book contains unique and surprising revelations about the history, physiology and lore of the vampiric race, tracing its roots all the way back to its Old Testament origins," the 43-year-old filmmaker said in a statement released by the HarperCollins imprint William Morrow.

"The idea is epic in scope."

Earlier this month, del Toro and Universal Studios announced a four-picture deal for the films Drood (a fictional tale about Charles Dickens as he prepared to write his final novel), an adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five and remakes of Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

He is also in the midst of co-writing a two-film adaptation of The Hobbit (which he will also direct) with producer Peter Jackson and his regular collaborators.