An avid reader knows about those special moments in a bibliophile's life when an unexpected book jumps off the rack and whacks you in the face like literary Chuck Norris round house kick. A little over a year ago when I just happened to see a book on the shelf called Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith, my immediate thought was Yeah like I'm NOT going to read this book now with a title like this.
The novel was not only surprisingly good it was fantastic. The premise involves the idea that the real motivation behind Southern slavery and eventually the Civil War lay at the hands of ravenous blood suckers. After being fundamentally affected early on in his family life by vampires, Lincoln takes up the outward role of lawyer, politician, and abolitionist and the clandestine role of night stalker. I know the premise sounds ridiculous and the title absurd but trust me the novel was fantastic, with a strong dose of "real" history thrown in.
And just like any successful/esoteric novel, Hollywood will find a way to make it into a movie. While there is no trailer as of yet for Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter there is this nifty poster. Gotta love the stern look with the axe in the left hand.
Benjamin Walker plays honest Abe and with the likes of Dominic Cooper, Anthony Mackie, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Alan Tudyk, and Rufus Sewell also part of the cast, it sounds like the studio is all in with this one. I'm not super thrilled about the director choice though. Timur Beckmambetov is kind of hit or miss for me. (Nightwatch was fantastic, Wanted was garbage.) Hopefully he stuck to the source material.
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter starts kicking ass and taking fangs June 22nd.
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