It looks as though Carlton Cuse has tapped into the Abrams-verse for the female lead of the pilot he and Guillermo del Toro are developing for FX. Argentinean beauty Mia Maestro, who played a key role in the later seasons of J.J. Abrams' spy drama Alias has been cast in The Strain, a drama that centers on a vampire-like infection that's spreading throughout New York City.
The Strain is based on a book trilogy from del Toro and Chuck Hogan. The pilot, which del Toro is developing with Cuse, will star Corey Stoll as Dr. Goodweather, the head of a CDC rapid-response team that's investigating biological threats, which leads them to the discovery of a vicious, vampiric plague that's about to tear through New York City. THR says Maestro will play Stoll's love interest, Dr. Nora Martinez, a brilliant biochemist, who serves as the doctor's righthand woman. "She's further described as caring more about people than the diseases that threaten them but will soon be forced to embrace a new identity as a ruthless warrior."
It sounds like an exciting role for Maestro, who knows a thing or two about vampires. She played Carmen, one of the Denali sisters, in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Parts 1 & 2. Going back a bit further, she played Nadia Santos, the beautiful spy and half-sister to Sydney Bristow in Alias. More recently, she's appeared in Person of Interest and White Collar. Should The Strain go to series - and it certainly has a lot going for it - this would put her in her first big TV role since Crusoe. She played Olivia in the NBC series, which was cancelled due to low ratings after just one season.
