After being linked to the love interest role eventually won by Mary Elizabeth Winstead, little known Australian actress Robin McLeavy has now eventually joined the cast of Timur Bekmambetov‘s adaptation of Seth Grahame-Greene‘s cult favorite “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter” instead in the role of the former president’s mother.
The actress joins Winstead, Benjamin Walker, Anthony Mackie, Dominic Cooper and Jimmi Simpson with the story centering on the faux diaries of the president (Walker) given to the author by a vampire named Henry Sturgess (Cooper). Sturgess saves Lincoln’s life when he battles a vampire as a teenager, and the two become fast friends. Sturgess teaches Lincoln about the history of vampirism, trains him in combat, and sends the president to hunt and kill evil vampires. Winstead plays the president’s wife while Mackie plays his best friend.
So just who is McLeavy? The up and coming thesp broke out in Sean Byrne‘s small high school horror flick “The Loved Ones,” which made a few splashes on the global festival scene last year, but — perhaps more significantly — she also scored notably positive reviews playing Stella in a stage production of “A Streetcar Named Desire” which featured seasoned pros in Cate Blanchett and Joel Edgerton in the roles of Blanche Dubois and Stanley Kowalski.
Earlier reports had even pegged McLeavy as the confirmed female lead before it was given to Winstead, but it looks like the actress impressed enough to score another crucial role, whose somewhat spoiler-ish influence on the story was discussed during the near-casting of Oscar-winning Nine Inch Nail‘s frontman Trent Reznor.
3D lensing on the project begins next month with a summer release of June 22 already planned for next year. [Deadline]
