Joaquin Phoenix May Teach Abe Lincoln How to Kill Vampires

We're slugging this as "Strange Bedfellows," but in a better world we'd have a more accurate tag for it--something like "Intuitive Bedfellows," or "Bedfellows That Completely Make Sense." Here's the deal: Joaquin Phoenix, the actor who recently lost his mind and became a fake rapper with a real beard, has reportedly been offered a part in the upcoming movie Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.

AL:VH is a film adaptation of the novel of the same name--a fanciful bit of historical horror fiction by Seth Grahame-Smith, the same guy who wrote Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. (For the sake of clarification, Grahame-Smith is not the author of Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, nor has he written Sense and Sensibility and Mister Darcy and Sharks in Space Rising Motorcycles Plus There Is a Time Machine.) The film version of Abe Lincoln: Vampire Hunter will be directed by Timur Bekmambetov, a Russian director best known in the U.S. for his work on the movies Wanted and 9.

Phoenix hasn't been offered the part of Lincoln--that role has already gone to Benjamin Walker, the Broadway star famous for his portrayal of Old Hickory in the musical Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson. Rather, according to Mike Fleming at Deadline, Phoenix has been tapped to play an immortal mentor figure named Henry, who guides a young Lincoln onto the vampire-slaying path. Fleming reports that the part is Phoenix's "if he wants it," but the star is "cagey and could decide not to go forward."

Meanwhile, rumors that Walker is just planning to make a career out of playing different presidents, and is in talks to star in the upcoming films Dwight Eisenhower's Very Bad Day, George Bush II: The Legend of Curly's Gold, and William McKinley Stabs a Billion Ninjas, could not be confirmed as of press time.