Tim Burton Says He Wanted to See Lincoln Vampire Movie Before He Made It

Tim Burton is known for (aside from his bromance with actor Johnny Depp) an affinity for quirky film premises — case in point being the strange 90’s classic Edward Scissorhands, about a young man living in a castle on a mountain in Levittown who has actual scissors for hands.

So it probably seems pretty natural that Tim Burton’s name would be attached to the just-released Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter. That film is based on a novel by the same name that was published in 2010 and written by Seth Grahame-Smith, and the revisionist fiction seemed a clear-cut big-screen leap when it was released.

Now that Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter is in theaters, Tim Burton has been talking about his initial interest in the film and what drew him to it. According to Burton, he didn’t even have to read the book to know that he wanted to bring it to the big screen — the Corpse Bride creator explains:

“I just heard the idea and the proposal and right away — and I never do this — I wanted to see this movie… Something in my brain went crazy.”

While Abe Lincoln revisionism has a steampunk bent to it, Burton actually says that the premise reminded him of films he’d watch as a kid growing up in Los Angeles — he recalls:

“There was this theatre in Burbank that would show triple features of films like ‘Dr. Jekyll & Sister Hyde’ and ‘Blacula.”‘

But to Burton, the idea of Abe Lincoln as a vampire slayer didn’t seem to be too unbelievable — the quirky filmmaker says that seeing old pics of the former president suggested a “haunted” look that appeared he was “hunting vampires while doing his day job as president.”

Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter was released nationwide on Friday.