Superheroes are everywhere in cinemas this summer, what with The Avengers, The Amazing Spider-Man and a tale about a bloke who dresses up as a Bat that some of you are slightly excited to see. But did you know there was a stealthier, pseudo-superheroic tale looking to compete with the big guns of Marvel and DC? Yes, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is playing some similar games, a fact that is discussed by writer Seth Grahame-Smith, producer Tim Burton and director Timur Bekmambetov in the latest featurette about the film over at Apple.
It’s mostly a sit-down chat between the three interspersed with snippets from the trailers that we’ve already seen, so if you were hoping for a wealth of new footage, you’re going to be disappointed.
The superhero side to Honest Abe (as played in the movie by Ben Walker) is clearly the focus here, as the trio are at pains to compare him to Batman and the rest. You can see their point: Grahame-Smith’s script (based on his genre mash book) posits a vampiric explanation for Lincoln’s mother’s death as the spur that sets him on his real historical mission in life and his fictional undercurrent of battling the fang club.
With Dominic Cooper, Rufus Sewell, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Marton Csokas, Jimmi Simpson and Alan Tudyk also among the cast, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter will be out on August 2.