I really liked "The Strain," the new vampire novel co-written by "The Hobbit" director Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan. It's smart, it's very New York and it treats vampirism like a biological illness. Not necessarily a treatable one mind you, but it flips the vampire myth script on its head rather nicely.

The book is the first volume in a planned trilogy. It's easy to see a del Toro movie franchise growing out of the idea, but that's not what he has in mind for "The Strain." In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, the filmmaker describes what his hopes are for the story and where the idea came from. Read more...

Guillermo del Toro stopped by the office last week to chat with MTV's Josh Horowitz about his new vampire novel, "The Strain," co-written with Chuck Hogan. He's such a cool, affable guy, del Toro. He also has no problems with "Twilight." None at all. It may not be his thing, but his view of the teen-friendly franchise is that it is "perfectly legitimate." See for yourself in the video below, or head over to MTV.com where you can view the entire MTV Rough Cut: Guillermo del Toro.

This Thursday, filmmaker Guillermo del Toro will be stopping by to chat with us on his upcoming book/movie project, "The Strain." For those who don't know about it -- and if you like del Toro, then you should -- "The Strain" is the first volume in a planned trilogy about... wait for it... vampires. Yeah, those blood-suckers are pretty popular. That first book actually hits shelves today, so make sure you pick yourself up a copy.

Okay, them's the basics. Now here comes the fun part. Del Toro is stopping by on Thursday to promote "The Strain" of course, and we know you fans are burning with questions about that and some of his other projects. Well we want to know what those questions are. Submit your queries to tips@mtvmoviesblog.com and we'll hit del Toro with the best of them.