Benjamin Walker cast as lead in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

One of the most famous figures in American history is to be played by a relative newcomer. Broadway star Benjamin Walker has been handed the title role in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, the latest in a series of "mash-up" projects that are heading towards cinemas. The film sees the 16th US president fighting the undead during the Civil War. Based on a novel by Seth Grahame-Smith, it will most likely follow the same author's Pride and Prejudice and Zombies on to the big screen. The latter sparked the current mash-up craze by taking Jane Austen's out-of-copyright tale of Regency romance and unleashing an army of the undead to liven up proceedings. Other similarly pitched movies are on the way. Jon Favreau's Cowboys and Aliens is arguably a loose example of the genre, while the 2010 blacklisted Boy Scouts vs Zombies sounds similarly enticing. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter will be directed by Timur Bekmambetov, a Russian film-maker who steered comic book adaptation Wanted to box office success in 2009. The film will mark the first big-budget lead role for Walker, who has previously starred in The Golden Compass and Clint Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers. He reportedly won the part after successful screen tests earlier this month. The role requires an actor who can portray Lincoln as a boyish and lanky young man, through to a skilled fighter, and on to middle-age with trademark beard. Producers have yet to cast the role of Henry Sturges, who mentors and trains Abe in the ways of vampire hunting, after first choice Tom Hardy opted to play the villain in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises instead.