Fox 2000 has pushed forward a seven-figure deal with screenwriter John Logan to script a movie based on the Jordan Ainsley (pen name of Justin Cronin) vampire novel, The Passage. The project is being developed as a possible directing vehicle for Ridley Scott, which would re-team him with Logan, who co-wrote the script for his Oscar-winning epic, Gladiator, with David Franzoni and William Nicholson.

The book is part of a three-book series that Fox 2000 purchased for an equally large sum a couple of years ago. This leads to the potential for a trilogy of films if the first finds success. The real challenge lies in the length of the first book, which runs 1,200 pages. Though Ainsley did sell the book based only on the first 400 pages and an outline, so it must have really impressed some people.