UNDERWORLD prequel rises

By Matt Holmes / June 25, 2011

Back in July, we heard that the third Underworld movie was set to be directed by the special effects guy Patrick Tatopoulos who had worked on the previous two movies in the series and was being promoted to the big director's chair... much like what happens with the Saw franchise. Studio's like to keep things in the family.

The movie titled Underworld: The Rise of the Lycans is a prequel to the other two movies in the series, and we now have official confirmation that Bill Nighy and Michael Sheen are returning with Rhona Mitra joining the cast. She has just completed her action led movie Doomsday for Brit director Niel Marshall... her biggest role so far on film. Variety give us this...

Prequel story traces the origins of the centuries-old blood feud between the aristocratic vampires known as Death Dealers and their onetime slaves, the Lycans. In the Dark Ages, a young Lycan named Lucian (Sheen) emerges as a powerful leader who rallies the werewolves to rise up against Viktor (Nighy), the cruel vampire king who has enslaved them. Lucian is joined by his secret lover, Sonja (Mitra), in his battle against the Death Dealer army and his struggle for Lycan freedom.

I've wanted to like the Underworld movies. I love the genre and the creatures the movie deals with but there's something incredibly bland and formulaic about the way Len Wiseman went about with his movies. They all felt very stagnate... very distant, despite the director's almost obsessive energy he puts into his camera work. Maybe the change of director and star will do this film some good. Sometimes these guys who get promoted do a really great job and Rhona Mitra has all the potential in the world of being a huge franchise action star if she is given some material to work with here. Beckinsale was starting to bore me in this after all.