Up-and-coming Australian actress Robin McLeavy will make her American film debut in director/producer Timur Bekmambetov’s soon-to-start shooting horror-comedy Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. McLeavy has been cast in the role of Lincoln’s young mother, whose murder at the hands of a vampire sets Lincoln off on his quest for revenge.

Based on author Seth Grahame-Smith’s best-selling novel, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter re-writes history by pitting the 16th U.S. president against an army of vampires in a secret battle set against the backdrop of the Civil War.

McLeavy drew positive reviews for her portrayal of teen sociopath Lola in writer/director Sean Byrne’s award-winning TIFF darling The Loved Ones. The pretty 29-year-old starlet kidnaps and tortures Twilight’s Xavier Samual in the abduction-thriller.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter stars Benjamin Walker (Flags of Our Fathers) as Honest Abe, Mary Elizabeth Winstead as his wife Mary Todd, Anthony Mackie (Real Steel) as Secretary of State and vampire killer William Seward, and Dominic Cooper (Captain America) as Lincoln’s vamp-killing mentor Henry Sturges.

The film starts shooting in March and is expected to be released in June 2012.

Mary Elizabeth Winstead is part of Clatto’s 20 Hottest Women Working in Horror/Sci-fi Today.