Adrien Brody, Timothy Olyphant vying for Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter lead

How can you not like the idea behind Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter? The hotly sought after adaptation of Seth Grahame-Smith's novel(his follow-up to the also in production Pride and Prejudice and Zombies) eventually landed at Fox, where it's being directed by special effects wiz, Timur Bekmambetov(Day Watch) and produced by none other than Tim Burton.  For a quick refresher on just how cool the film could be, the story has it that ol' Honest Abe's mother was killed by bloodsuckers, leading him to become obsessed with their destruction. He takes to killing vamps with an axe all throughout his presidency.  Remember the super cool promo trailer for the book? 



Deadline has the scoop on who just might get the chance to don the Prez's iconic top hat and beard. Adrien Brody, Timothy Olyphant, James D'arcy, Benjamin Walker, Josh Lucas, and Oliver Jackson-Cohen are all testing for the role right now.

Brody, Olyphant, and Lucas are the most known commodities, although I feel like Lucas would have the most to gain by nabbing the role. Then again, he's had a number of opportunites at leading man success and never cashed in on any of them. Walker, some might recall, was initially going to be cast as the Beast in X-men: First Class, but dropped out.  Oliver Jackson-Cohen was last seen as the Killer going up against Dwayne Johnson in Faster.  D'arcy has been in a number of flicks, including Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, but for me he remains something of an unknown. 

A release date of June 22nd 2012 has already been nailed down, so expect to see a leading man confirmed sooner rather than later. I'm hoping for Olyphant, personally. He's done the historical bit before, and knows his way around action better than almost anybody else on the list.