Rufus Sewell is Abe Lincoln: Vampire Hunter's main villain

British actor Rufus Sewell has bagged the role of lead vampire villain Adam in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter .

He'll star opposite Benjamin Walker as the vamp-busting president and Mary Elizabeth Winstead as the first lady, as well as fellow Brit Dominic Cooper who's playing Abe's mentor.

Sewell has a rich history of playing caddish villains, in the likes of A Knight's Tale , The Legend of Zorro , The Illusionist and, er, The Holiday .

The actor also gained a little American history experience with a small role in HBO's superior drama series, John Adams .

His casting comes fairly late in the day, as director Timur Bekmambetov has already started shooting the historical fantasy, with an eye to a summer 2012 release.

The film is based on Seth Grahame-Smith's bestselling novel, which reimagines vampirism as the primary cause behind the Civil War.

Matt Maytum
Editor, Total Film

I'm the Editor at Total Film magazine, overseeing the running of the mag, and generally obsessing over all things Nolan, Kubrick and Pixar. Over the past decade I've worked in various roles for TF online and in print, including at GamesRadar+, and you can often hear me nattering on the Inside Total Film podcast. Bucket-list-ticking career highlights have included reporting from the set of Tenet and Avengers: Infinity War, as well as covering Comic-Con, TIFF and the Sundance Film Festival.