The Strain - The pilot phase at FX is definitely a formality

The best network on television, FX (that's a fact), will order The Strain to series, that's a 99% guarantee.

Indeed, they have already scheduled a 5-month shooting window in Toronto, where the pilot will be filming this fall for a whole month (probably a 90-minute pilot then) :

Guillermo del Toro's THE STRAIN is also heading to Toronto, FX pilot shoots from Sep 3 - Oct 4 with the series scheduled for Nov 18 - Apr 4.

— Production Weekly (@prodweek) 18 mai 2013

Guillermo Del Toro is a proven fan of FX series :

- He cast Charlie Hunnam as the star of Pacific Rim because he stars in Sons of Anarchy, where his good friend Ron Pearlman (Hellboy) co-stars - Ron Pearlman is also co-starring in Pacific Rim ;
- He appeared as Pappy McPoyle in The Maureen Ponderosa Wedding Massacre, AKA episode 8.03 It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and Charlie Day co-stars in Pacific Rim too.

And now he'll get to have his very own FX series, which is expected to run for 3 seasons, if I remember correctly, and pretty much be FX's Game of Thrones, and not just in terms of hype or budget, but because it's based on the 3-book series written by Del Toro. And on top of that, it belongs to fantasy, a genre FX hasn't really delved into yet — American Horror Story is more about creepiness/horror than full-blown fantasy, imo.

Guillermo Del Toro will be heavily involved in the production : he will obviously executive produce his novel adaption and direct the pilot himself, before moving on to his film Crimson Peak and then hopefully the Monster pilot at HBO (yes, that sounds beyond awesome too). A true lover of compelling TV, that man, and now TV maker, contributing to making this medium grow with lengthy, costly adaptations of fantasy stories that wouldn't have been "family-friendly" enough to secure millions of dollars to become blockbuster feature films. Well, FX and HBO are here.

Carlton Cuse (the newcomer currently running A&E's Bates Motel) will be the showrunner of The Strain, starring Corey Stroll as CDC doctor Ephraim "Eph" Goodweather. A writing staff has been assembled and additional scripts are currently being written (yep, no way it's not getting a series order). Like me, you should be beyond excitement.