Tim Burton and Wanted director Timur Bekmambetov are teaming up to produce a movie version of Seth Grahame Smith’s upcoming novel, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Grahame Smith is best known for creating Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which added an undead dimension to Jane Austen’s prose and is currently in devlopment for a movie version, with Natalie Portman set to star.
As the title suggests, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter reimagines the American president as an axe-wielding, highly trained vampire hunter. The book gives new context to Lincoln’s rise to the presidency as well as the American Civil War (which was fought because the vampires were in league with the slave owners), suggesting these events were a lot more paranormal than history tells us, and stemmed from Lincoln’s mother’s murder by a vampire when he was a child.
THR says that at the minute, Bekmambetov and Burton have no studio backing for the movie, but they’re hoping to change that soon. Grahame Smith will adapt the novel himself, although there’s currently no-one in the director’s chair (and neither Burton or Bekmambetov are likely to step in).
Apparently the producers interest in the source material was piqued by a trailer for the book that was released a few weeks ago, and you can see that below.