Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is fascinating re-imagining of history based on Seth Grahame-Smith’s novel of the same name. What if Abraham Lincoln was actually a Vampire Hunter in his youth? Director Timur Bekmambetov and Producer Tim Burton take you on a wild ride through history. The action-packed tale has some epic battle sequences and scary vampires. It will keep you at the edge of your seat and we highly reccommend this film.
The Source Magazine recently attended the Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter press conferece in New York City. Anthony Mackie stars in the film and what drew him to the project was the opportunity to play Will Johnson, a man who actually existed and was Abraham Linlcon’s right hand man despite being black in those times. This is what he had to say about the role:
I think for me, William H. Johnson being an actual person and someone who is kind of I feel one of the reasons the Civil War was fought and how the The Emancipation Proclamation was written, The Gettysburg Address, being Abraham Lincoln’s friend and working with him at that time, the relationship between the two of them had to garner a certain level of humanity and respect and dignity. I feel like if you just look at when he passed away on the way back from the Gettysburg Address, Abraham Lincoln took money out of his own pocket, had him buried at Arlington Cemetery and on his headstone it says William H. Johnson, Citizen, and it’s still there today, i think it’s kind of remarkable that not only do people not know about that story, but people have no idea who William H. Johnson is, so when I first heard about the project, I was blown away by the idea, and I’m a huge huge supporter of re-contextualizing history just to make it more upbeat and cool instead of just like a green chaulkboard and some old fat lady writing on it —that wassmy school not yours–so I was really excited by it and I read everything I could about the time and the type of relationship that they could have possibly had in that society.
Check out http://www.blackfilm.com video from the press conference. Mackie’s reflections on this role come in at 2:45s.
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is now playing!
