Inside 'Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter' with Anthony Mackie

The film version of Seth Grahame-Smith's "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" is now in production. The author wrote the screenplay himself for his historical mashup, which is being produced by Tim Burton with Scott Walker as Lincoln and Anthony Mackie playing his valet and friend William Johnson. (There are, as you might have guessed, also vampires).

Our sibling blog 24 Frames talked to Mackie about the movie and his role. "It's not so much fictional as it is a recontextualization of history," Mackie said. "There are actual moments and things that happened in the annals of time. Abraham Lincoln's friend William Johnson really was a freed man of color."

"This movie will tell us what pre-Emancipation Proclamation America was like," Mackie said. "It puts you in a position where you want to go back and read a book about 1860-1925 America."

In "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" there is a sinister connection between slaveholders and vampires. As will be revealed when the film is released in 2012.

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-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: Anthony Mackie, left, at the Vanity Fair Oscar party on Sunday; book jacket from "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter." Credits: Pascal Le Segretain / Getty Images; Grand Central Publishing.

Comments

[Steve Nowak]

With all due respect, who comes up with this crap?

[Bill Vallante]

Just when you thought that America couldn't get any dumber than what it already is, the geniuses in Hollywood give us a movie that casts Lincoln in the role of Van Helsing (or maybe "Stan Helsing"?). "A sinister connection between slaveholders and vampires"? Why of course! Everyone knows that slaveholders were responsible for all the ills of the world. I know this because Hollyweird tells me so! Funny how all the evil slaveholders always seem to be in the American South of the antebellum period while all the other slaveholders in the world throughout history get a "get out of jail free" card!? I wonder why that is?? And, a "recontextualization of history"? A what? Hey Macke, you can turn it upside down and sideways and look at it any way you want...but any way you shake it, it's not "history," it's still FICTION... and very bad fiction at that. Step right up folks - 10 bucks gets you a movie ticket and a free lobotomy!

[Billy Bearden]

Love to see what kind of spin the movie puts on Lincoln! With Lincoln stating publically many times he was opposed to blacks being equal to white, that Lincoln only wanted to save the Union without freeing any slaves, with Lincoln shipping blacks back to Africa, and his Emancipation Proclamation that didn't free any slaves at all - especially those slaves in Union States like Delaware, Maryland and West Virginia. I can only imagine what lies that Tim Burton and Anthony Mackie tell about Lincoln....

Will we see any facts like black man Anthony Johnson was granted lifetime services of black man John Casor as the 1st legal case of slavery in America in 1655, black slave owners, black Confederate Veterans, etc.. ? Or will it just be more south bashing?

[steve]

Lincoln is being portrayed as a vampire hunter, and your worried about historical accuracy. lolololol

[Kathleen Curtis]

so now we know all vampires are white (as slaveholders...)

But, do they sparkle?

lol

[Bill]

I read the book and gotta tell you that it was quite entertaining. If you look at it from that standpoint like your watching, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" or something it is good for a laugh or 2. Books like this though, and many movies as well, are not really things to read into that much because no matter what film Hollywood is going to put its own twist on it and distort the storyline(i.e. Max Payne) into their own. I consider myself to be quite the history buff as well and know quite a lot of the assassination and the civil war, but sometimes it is nice to kick back and relax with something designed more to assume/entertain every once in a while.

[mike]

I can't wait for "Jeff Davis, Werewolf Killer".