When 20th Century Fox picked up the rights to Seth Grahame-Smith's horror/historical mash-up novel, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, I don't think anybody had particularly high hopes for it. The book, while successful, has more than it's share of tonal problems and the concept could be hard to translate to the big screen. Just look at the problems there's been trying to adapt Grahame-Smith's first book, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. But after a slew of butt kicking images featuring Lincoln(Benjamin Walker) going toe-to-fang with the vamps, the film has picked up a crazy amount of heat leading to it's June 22nd release.
With the arrival of this surprisingly bold first trailer for the film, we see why Fox had so much confidence. Directed by special effects wiz, Timur Bekmambetov(Wanted) and produced by Tim Burton, it has the look and feel of a historical version of The Matrix, with Lincoln embroiled in an awesome battle atop a flaming locomotive, showing off his dizzying array of spinning kung fu attacks. All the while, the film still feels very much rooted in history, featuring shots of Lincoln delivering an address to the people, and images of the Civil War rampaging. The coup de grace comes as Lincoln, in a play on the old cherry tree legend, shatters it to smithereens with one swing of his mighty axe.
The question now is who this film will appeal to. Genre mash-ups haven't fared so well lately(Cowboys & Aliens, anyone?), and Walker isn't exactly a household name. Releasing in the heart of the summer season will prove to be another challenge, but if further trailers continue to be as eye popping visually as this one, we may be talking about Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter as one of the year's sleeper hits. Check out the trailer for yourself below....
