Benjamin Walker talks Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter recently released a first teaser trailer and now star Benjamin Walker and Timur Bekmembatov have fanned anticipation still further by dropping a few nuggets of info on what we can expect from the historical horror.

“What’s great about it is we can re-examine Abraham Lincoln as a human being,” says Walker. “He’s an idol, we put him on a pedestal and see him as a a sacred figure, and we kind of distance ourselves from him, and kind of relinquished our own responsibility to be like him.”

Bekmembatov is also keen to talk up the significance of Lincoln as a protagonist. “For me, he’s a person who can take responsibility to make a decision because we live in a world where everything’s kind of gray,” explains the director. “There’s no black and white.”

Which is all well and good, but both star and director seem to be skirting around a fairly major plot point: Lincoln fights vampires! Walker acknowledges the premise is outlandish, but urges audiences to suspend their cynicism, and take a punt on the project.

“I imagine there will be some people that will be sceptical,” says the star, “and I would say, give us a shot, because in a landscape of movies where we’ve got a lot of reboots, sequels, franchises and toy movies, we’re doing something new!”

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter will open in the UK on 2 August 2012.

George was once GamesRadar's resident movie news person, based out of London. He understands that all men must die, but he'd rather not think about it. But now he's working at Stylist Magazine.