So imagine my surprise when I finished Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, and not only was it actually pretty good, it's been turned into a film that comes out this very month! I figured I'd write this post before it's release date of 20th June 2012. Not only that, but I'll be giving away a brand new copy of the book by Seth Grahame-Smith and a movie poster to one lucky winner!Plot summary from IMDB - Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, discovers vampires are planning to take over the United States. He makes it his mission to eliminate them.
Well I'm glad the summary doesn't just rehash the title or anything, cause THAT would be annoying...
So I've had a quick look at the trailer and it looks pretty damn good. The author of the book, Seth Grahame-Smith, also wrote the screenplay, which is always a promising start for a book-to-movie adaptation. It usually means the tone and style of the book will be carried across, as the writer wants to keep their 'vision' intact. Mr. Grahame-Smith also wrote Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which is coming out as a movie in 2013, so I guess we'll be able to judge it's potential on how well Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter does.
While the novel is quite dark, the trailer looks even more so. Still, produced by Tim Burton and directed by Timur Bekmambetov, what else can you expect? The later was responsible for the films The Night Watch and The Day Watch (from which I learnt my three words of Russian - Da, Nyet and VAMPIR!!!), and so clearly has experience in directing dark vampire movies. The trailer for this film does look vaguely reminiscent of the trailer for The Night Watch when I think about it.
The book is quite factual and repetitive at times, so it looks like they've bumped up the action and vampire-ness here. While Abraham does do his fair share of hunting in the book, fairly often it's just mentioned as an aside, instead of a blow-by-blow encounter. The trailer also seems to feature far more vampires than actually exist in the film, particularly a lady vampire called Vadoma, who I have no idea who she's meant to be. Also, the scene with the train in the trailer? Never happened. Well, obviously it never happened, but I mean it didn't happen in the book. I hope they manage to put in some Lincoln-sans-vampires moments though, otherwise it's going to be a very generic vampire film.
Benjamin Walker plays Abraham Lincoln, and honestly, I have seen him in absolutely nothing else. I mean, he might be amazing - he might be the Lincolniest Lincoln we've ever seen - but it surprises me they didn't get somebody a little more experienced. Apparently Tom Hardy, Eric Bana and Timothy Oliphant were all approached but turned it down. Well, good luck Mr. Walker!
The role of Lincoln's vampire mentor, Henry Sturgess, was given to Dominic Cooper (on the right in the above photo) who played Howard Stark in Captain America: The First Avenger in 2011. I don't know, I just can't see him as the suave, sophisticated Henry. He's too young and seems to lack the experience and knowledge clearly present in Henry - he's been around for hundreds of years but this guy looks like he'd be ID'd for a bottle of vodka.
It surprised me a little that the Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter movie is going to be R-rated. I mean, really? The book isn't that scary or gory at all. Like I mentioned earlier, you don't actually see many of the hunts. But ohhh. Do you know why it's R-rated? Because I do. It's because of 'violence throughout and brief sexuality.' Brief sexuality? In a film about Abraham Lincoln fighting vampires? For Christ's sake. Why do they feel the need to shove sex into everything? It's just not in the book at all, why would it possibly need to be!?
I don't know about this, you know. It looks like they tried so hard to make it a non-sparkly vampire film that they went too far in the opposite direction. Instead, there's a lot of violence, 'brief sexuality' and not a whole lot else from the looks of the trailer. Seth Grahame-Smith took the concept of Abraham Lincoln's life and spiced it up with vampires; but then Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov took that concept of a concept, poured glue on it and shook it around in the Adult Tin.
Read my review of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter or look at other upcoming adaptations.
Oh, there are so many. Time Traveler's Wife, Captain Corelli's Mandolin, The Da Vinci Code, Dear John and the Twilight movies.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the great giveaway!
Artemis
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ReplyDeleteThank you for the great giveaway
I've been on the rocks about reading this one so this is a great opportunity.
ReplyDeleteI always try to keep my expectations really low when I go to see a movie based on a book just so I'm not disappointed!!!
The first Harry Potter - it tried too hard to be like the book.
ReplyDeleteFor me it´s probably Eragon. Thank you for the giveaway.
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't precised if the giveaway was international or not so i hope it's but if bnot don't count my entries
ReplyDeletethe film that dissapointed me the most was Dungeons and Dragons - so stupid the wizard that can't suceess the most easy level 1 spell but manage the harder one...etc erk
Hmmmm, good question. I quite often love movie adaptations, because I'm pretty good at separating out the two different formats and enjoying each in their own right.
ReplyDeleteCaptain Corelli's Mandolin was a bit of a bust, not because the film was bad (it was quite beautiful, and most of the casting was great) but because Nicholas Cage was NOT my idea of a handsome Italian captain. Likewise, I enjoyed 'Running with Scissors' but felt that it missed some of the wonderful humour of the book and focussed much more on Augusten's (annoying) mother, rather than on the eccentric Finch family.
I've watched a lot of movies based on books which I haven't read so I'm not too bothered by their adaptations. Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief comes to mind for this question though I haven't finished the book but I'm loving it so far. The same can't be said for the movie, I couldn't get through the first 20 minutes, I don't even know why but I really disliked it.
ReplyDeleteThe movies (adapted from books) that disappointed me the most were:
ReplyDelete1) the DaVinci Code/Angels & Demons
2) Running with Scissors
3) Time Traveler's Wife (they just couldn't capture the essence of that movie!)
Name: Hira Hasnain
Email: Enamoredsoul(at)gmail(dot)com
So what does "brief sexuality" mean? I need to know as my 13 1/2 year old wants to go see it with her friend and I have no intention of paying to see it until it's on dvd.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I'm not sure. I doubt there will be any intense sex scenes, possibly a few glimpses at most. I really can't say.
DeleteI just know that there is no sex whatsoever in the book. The most that happens is the narrative mentioning that they had children!
Pretty much every one that is based on a Dean Koontz novel. I mean, I love the author, but the movies *shudders* then of course they only made it to TV and not to the big screen which kinda makes sense.
ReplyDelete