Fox Wins "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter"

Deadline.com reports that Twentieth Century Fox won the rights to a big-screen adaptation of the book Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter in a heated auction against other major studios, including Sony, Paramount, Summit, and Universal. Tim Burton will be producing the film, Timur Bekmambetov will be directing, and the film will be in 3D. (It has not been stated whether the film will be shot in 3D or whether it will be converted to the format in post-production.) Production is scheduled to begin in March.



Deadline had this to say about the auction:

"As of yesterday, Sony and Universal and Paramount and Summit and Fox were all in hot pursuit. But Tom Rothman and Jim Gianopulos really kicked it up a notch. When Tim and Timur and their entourage of reps came to the Fox lot to present the project (the pair used their own money to option the book earlier this year), they were met with a huge banner at the gate. It had the title treatment of the script and was emblazoned, "Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov present Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter". At their parking spot were signs saying “Parking For Vampire Hunters Only: park at your own risk,” and so forth. There were bloody footprints lining the walkway and stairs leading from their cars to the meeting in Building 88 with images from the book and lines from the script. As if that were not enough, there also were bloody axes strewn about, and a bugle player in a Confederate uniform playing "Taps" as the filmmakers walked to the meeting. OK, not quite Paramount's goat gambit for Sacha Baron Cohen. But this is pretty cool, too. Once inside the room, Fox listened to the filmmakers' pitch -- and then gave its own which included meetings with production and marketing execs. Fox has existing relationships with both filmmakers -- Jim with Timur dating back to when the studio talent-spotted him in Russia and released his first movie Night Watch worldwide; and Tom obviously has worked with Tim Burton in the past."