As we all should already know, Anthony Mackie is co-starring with Benjamin Walker in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter for 20th Century Fox.

Mackie will play the role of Will, Lincoln’s best friend… naturally! What else would he be? Will is based on a real-life character by the way… William H. Johnson, who was essentially Lincoln’s manservant. Can your manservant also be your “best friend?” You tell me 🙂

Anyway… both Abe and Will get to kill a lot of vampires together. Apparently, in the book the film is based on, slavery is reduced to a mere contrivance of the vampires. So, don’t go into this expecting any substantive probe into slavery.

I actually started to read the book the film is based on, soon after I learned that the film was coming, but wasn’t particularly enthralled, so I put it down to read something else; and I still haven’t returned to it. And also because I don’t remember getting far enough into the book to learn about this Will character Mackie plays. He certainly isn’t mentioned until you’re into the thick of it, because I got about a third of the way through, and don’t recall him. But I’ll return to the book eventually, before the film is released and write up one of my book-to-film reviews.

What I really want to know whether the brotha dies at the end? Does he eventually get sliced up by a vampire, probably in an act of self-sacrifice to save his best friend Abe? 🙂

Tim Burton teamed with Wanted director Timur Bekmambetov to produce the movie, based on the Seth Grahame-Smith novel that hit bookstore shelves last spring. He also wrote Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which will be made into a movie, with Natalie Portman once-attached to star and David O. Russell circling as director.

Here’s Mackie on the Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter set, in costume, and with some gray hairs as you can see, talking to MTV about other projects he’s being considered for,