The movie version of the best-selling book Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter, directed by Timur Bekmanbetov, with Tim Burton as one of the producers, is being called one of the hottest projects in Hollywood right now. Last week, Benjamin Walker was announced as the lead; yesterday, it was reported that Joaquin Phoenix is the front runner for the part of Henry Sturgess, Honest Abe’s vampire-killing mentor.

Two other film takes on our 16th president are also in the works. Steven Spielberg is set to direct Lincoln, based on Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals, with Daniel Day-Lewis in the lead.

Coming April 15 is the Robert Redford film Conspirator, about Mary Surratt, the lone woman accused of conspiring in the assassination plot. Robin Wright plays Surratt, Evan Rachel Wood her daughter Anna and Kevin Kline plays Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. Lincoln is played by Lincoln impersonator Gerald Bestron. Since the majority of the film’s story takes place after the assassination, however, his screen time will be relatively short.

Conspirator is not based on a specific book, although, of course, there are many books on the assassination and several on Surratt specifically.

Official Movie Web Site: ConspiratorTheMovie.com

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 1st, 2011 at 11:21 am and is filed under Books & Movies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.