According to
The Wrap, Australian actor
Eric Bana is circling the title role in 20th Century Fox's,
Tim Burton produced, big screen adaptation of
Seth Grahame-Smith's revisionist horror novel
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. The epistolary-style book is written as a biography of Abraham Lincoln, based on his "secret diaries" kept by the 16th President and given to the author by a vampire named Henry Sturges, a role offered
to Tom Hardy last month - but there's no official confirmation that he's taken the part yet. Bana, whose last blockbuster role was playing the Romulan villain Neo in
Star Trek, is reported to be meeting with director
Timur Bekmambetov soon and if
reports from Nola are correct and shooting is due to start at the end of January in New Orleans then it wont be long until we have confirmation on this one. Bana stands at an imposing 6"3, just an inch shorter than Lincoln and has plenty of blockbuster chops from his
Troy, Hulk and the aforementioned Star Trek. He wasn't a choice that immediately sprung to mind, but for a horror/comedy - we think it can work. Seth Grahame-Smith's brand of revisionist period/horror is popular in Hollywood circles at the moment with the long gestating
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies still trying to get in front of cameras (
latest rumours say Becoming Jane stars
James McAvoy and
Anne Hathaway are being sought for Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth, respectively) .
The latter genre-bashing proposition for me sounds like it may be the more successful of the two, but as ever with films of this goofy sounding nature, the tone and casting will have to be bang on otherwise it just won't work. So if Fox want someone to give a bit of weight and presence to the proceedings on Lincoln, then they can't go far wrong with Bana. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, a $70 million, 3D blockbuster is due for release on June 22nd, 2012.... half a year earlier than
Steven Spielberg's serious
Lincoln biopic with Daniel Day-Lewis.