Fox has released the first trailer for the upcoming television series The Passage, which is based on the best-selling book series of the same name by Justin Cronin. The series follows a young girl, Amy Bellafonte (Saniyya Sidney) and a federal agent, Brad Wolgast (Mark-Paul Gosselaar), as they flee from a government agency that wants to use Amy for an experiment that could render human beings immune to disease.
The experiment is not without consequences, though. In trying to perfect the formula, scientists inadvertently create a race of vampire-like creatures that are confined to the lab that created them, all part of the top-secret Project Noah. As Amy and Brad and hunted by the government, the creatures begin to test the limits of their confines, slowly creeping towards a day where they might escape and wreak havoc.
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The Passage television series is written by Liz Heldens (Friday Night Lights) and executive-produced by Emmy Award-winner and Academy Award nominee Ridley Scott (Alien, The Martian). Matt Reeves (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes) is also credited as an executive producer on the series, as well.
The series is based off a trilogy of novels by Cronin. The Passage novel debuted on June 8, 2010. The follow-up, The Twelve, was released on Oct. 12, 2012, while the final book in the series, The City of Mirrors, was published May 24, 2016. The show was originally planned to be a film series, the rights having been acquired by Scott’s Free Productions and 20th Century Fox back in 2007, long before the first book was even released.
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Cronin’s unfinished manuscript caused a stir back in 2007 and managed to incite a massive studio bidding war even in its unfinished state. Cronin penned the manuscript under a pseudonym, Jordan Ainsley, because the author is best known for his massive, sprawling novels that rival Stephen King’s word counts. The film rights to The Passage were secured by Free Productions and Fox to the tune of $1.75 million.
Written by Liz Heldens and executive produced by Ridley Scott and Matt Reeves, The Passage stars Saniyya Sidney as Amy Bellafonte, Mark-Paul Gosselaar as Brad Wolgast, Caroline Chikezie as Major Nichole Sykes, Vincent Piazza as Clark Richards, Jamie McShane as Tim Fanning, Brianne Howey as Shauna Babcock and Emmanuelle Chriqui as Dr. Lila Kyle.