Twentieth Century Fox is casting for its June 22, 2012 release of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. The film, an adaptation of a fairly successful Seth Grahame-Smith book, is one of the hottest summer tent-pole projects in production right now. “Night Watch” director Timur Bekmambetov is at the helm, being produced by Tim Burton and Jim Lemley.
Currently being considered for the role of Honest Abe are: Benjamin Walker (Flags of Our Fathers), James D’Arcy (Master and Commander), Adrien Brody (Predators, Splice, King Kong), Oliver Jackson-Cohen (Faster), and Josh Lucas (Life As We Know It). There are also a few websites including Timothy Olephant (Die Hard 4) on the list as well, but that’s inconsistently reported.
Only in Hollywood would such wild fantasy with the reputation of one of America’s greatest Presidents be in such demand. Fox wanted the project so badly that when the filmmakers came onto the lot, the studio had bloody axes and bloody footprints strewn about, and arranged for a bugle player in a Confederate uniform playing “Taps” to accompany them to the meeting with studio executives. The script has already been written by the book’s author when it was put out for bid, and we heard widely that every studio was impressed with the whole pitch, as well as the prospect of having the next directorial effort by Bekmambetov and a take honed by Burton.
I’m a bit of a Lincoln obsessed Civil War buff, so this film really excites me in a high schooler kind of way. As long as the script isn’t just silly, I am totally on board with this. Seth Graham-Smith is the author of the famous Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, for those who don’t know, and he’s written the script for the Abe Lincoln film.
My personal pick here is Adrien Brody. He has the gawky features of Abe, and yet, also has this sort of buff-bodied toughness that reminds me of Bruce Campbell in the Evil Dead films (seriously, check out the photos of Brody from Predators). Who do you prefer?
