Several years ago, I read Justin Cronin’s long, fabulous and scary book The Passage, and couldn’t put it down. While the second in the trilogy, The 12, didn’t do quite as much for me, it was still fascinating (and the third in the series, The City of Mirrors, which came out in May, is next in my TBR pile).
So I don’t know why I haven’t registered the news that this amazing book is coming to TV! But Deadline Hollywood today had a report from the TV Critics Association meetings that the pilot has already been shot and possibly have some reshooting. It’s this far and I didn’t know about it? Shame!
Mark-Paul Gosselaar Cr: Ray Mickshaw / FOX. © 2016 FOX Broadcasting Co.
The Passage is a post-apocalyptic story of survivors of a mysterious virus that turns people into what the show is calling vampires, but not quite the Dracula version – more, I’d say, the Walking Dead or World War Z type of creature. Where did the virus start, how was it originally transmitted, who’s responsible? And who can stop it? The show will focus on Amy, an orphaned survivor with some remarkable abilities, and Brad, an FBI agent.
Written by Liz Heldens, Scott Free and Matt Reeves, and produced by Ridley Scott, the Fox pilot has now moved from mid-season consideration to a possibility for fall 2018. It stars Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Saniyya Sidney. IMdB’s synopsis of the story only touches the surface: A post-apocalyptic story about a botched U.S. government experiment that turns a group of death row inmates into highly infectious vampires, and an orphan girl who might be the only person able to stop the ensuing crisis.
Justin Cronin with Saniyya Sidney (from Cronin’s Twitter account)
Deadline Hollywood’s June 1 report describes the book’s story:
The story in The Passage is told in two timelines. In the present, a 10-year-old Amy Bellafonte (Sidney) seems to have special powers that allow her to communicate with “virals,” terrifying monsters that once were human. Through flashbacks, Amy tells her tale, which is directly tied to the genesis of these creatures.
After her mother died, Amy is retrieved from foster care by FBI agent Brad Wolgast (Gossellaar) for Project Noah, a secret, government-funded, medical research facility in Colorado, where a drug is being tested that turns people into lethal killing machines but also unleashes psychic abilities. But a tragedy in Wolgast’s past makes this impossible for him. As Wolgast escorts Amy to Project Noah, they form a bond and the two of them flee, almost making it to Canada before being caught.
As the story follows Amy both in Colorado and in California, it becomes clear the young girl may be the key to saving humanity. Sarah (Jennifer Ferrin), Peter (BJ Britt) and Alicia (Genesis Rodriguez) fight to stop the infection that threatens mankind. Brianne Howey plays Shauna, a convict used as a test subject in Project Noah.
I’ll keep you up to date on this exciting project! Want to read the book first? You can pick it up from Amazon by clicking below.
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