{"id":1412,"date":"2012-02-13T20:32:48","date_gmt":"2012-02-14T02:32:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/?p=1412"},"modified":"2012-02-13T20:32:48","modified_gmt":"2012-02-14T02:32:48","slug":"abraham-lincoln-vampire-hunter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/?p=1412","title":{"rendered":"Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter"},"content":{"rendered":"

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An atmospheric, action-packed trailer for its “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter,” a 3-D summer spectacle film starring relative newcomer Benjamin Walker as a very different incarnation of our venerable 16th president. The trademark beard and stovepipe hat are there, sure, but where in the history books did it say that young Lincoln was a strapping, ax-wielding action hero chopping down vampires with gusto?<\/p>\n

The idea for this hodgepodge of history and horror sprang from the mind of Seth Grahame-Smith, a struggling screenwriter turned novelist whose 2009 book \u201cPride and Prejudice and Zombies\u201d sparked the trend of draping genre trappings over classic literature (\u201cSense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters,\u201d \u201cAndroid Karenina,\u201d et al.). For his follow-up, Grahame-Smith reimagined the life of Lincoln through a B-movie lens, penning the manuscript for \u201cVampire Hunter\u201d in just four months.<\/p>\n

The book recounts roughly 45 years of Lincoln\u2019s life, from about 1820 to 1865, tracing his evolution from a poor young man devastated by the loss of his mother, up through his burgeoning interest in politics, his presidency and his assassination at the hands of John Wilkes Booth. While the tale is rooted in factual history, it also posits the fantastic conceit that Lincoln\u2019s secret crusade to drive blood-drinking monsters into extinction influenced nearly every important decision in his life.<\/p>\n

In his quest, he finds an unlikely ally and companion in a mysterious man named Henry Sturges (portrayed on screen by Dominic Cooper), who helps him defeat the supernatural foes who seek to uphold the institution of slavery for their own despicable ends.<\/p>\n

The film is directed by “Wanted” filmmaker Timur Bekmambetov, and another fantastically minded soul, Tim Burton, is one of the movie’s producers. Burton told The Times last year that he immediately sparked to the idea for the film as soon as he heard about the premise.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomething hit me inside that said I just wanted to see that movie,\u201d Burton said. \u201cI don\u2019t know why. I grew up on weird, perverse movies, and it just seemed like one of those kind of movies that just tapped into my subconscious. I remember going to the Cornell Theater in Burbank, where they\u2019d do like three movies for 50 cents, and that would have been the kind of movie I would have seen there.\u201d<\/p>\n

“Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter” opens June 22.