Happy Birthday, Mr. President, indeed. What a birthday present for Honest Abe, I’d say!
Today, on the day after the 16th President of the United States’ birthday, the first trailer for ‘Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter’ was released. Based on the 2010 mashup novel of the same name, the film version is directed by Timur Bekmambetov and produced by Tim Burton. The novel’s writer, Seth Grahame-Smith, wrote the screenplay as well.
‘Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter’ follows the life of the Abe we’ve all come to know and love, with some slight tweaks to his back-story, as well as his secret life of vampire hunting. Born into an age when vampires are being flushed out of Europe, young Abraham seeks vengeance when members of his family are victims of vampire violence. Once elected president, he uses the Civil War to halt the hostile takeover of America by the bloodsucking bunch of invaders, and gruesome, glorious vampire slaying ensues. Vampire Hunter is Grahame-Smith’s follow-up to the equally absurd/awesome novel ‘Pride and Prejudice and Zombies’, a mashup of the classic Jane Austen novel and a zombie story, which has also been optioned for a film version, but has hit many roadblocks along the way to the silver screen.
This historical 3D supernatural thriller, a genre combination that I never thought I’d have to put together, is set to hit the cinemas on June 22, 2012. It stars Benjamin Walker as Abraham Lincoln, Mary Elizabeth Winstead of ‘Scott Pilgrim Vs The World’ as Mary Todd Lincoln, and the pilot of Serenity himself, Alan Tudyk, as Stephen A. Douglas, the political rival of Lincoln.
Personally, I can’t wait to see Abe demolish that tree with one mighty swing at the end of the trailer, among other things, on the big screen and in 3D.
