Kate Beckinsale Returns in UNDERWORLD: AWAKENING

Oh how the Underworld franchise has bored us to death. A fourth film? Don't ask us how it happened but in a dubious career move - Kate Beckinsale returns to the franchise she ditched last time around with the now titled Underworld: Awakening, the fourth film in the franchise we fully expect to ignore when it's released next year.

Beckinsale returns as the vampire warrioress Selene, who escapes imprisonment to find herself in a world where humans have discovered the existence of both Vampire and Lycan clans, and are conducting an all-out war to eradicate both immortal species.

Presumably after being turned down by every B-movie action director in town, Screen Gems and Lakeshore Entertainment settled on Swedish duo Mans Marlind and Bjorn Stein to helm the film last year. Who, you ask? Well they made their English-language debut with the Julianne Moore and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers thriller Shelter - and no, we didn't see it either. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSAU4-ClVxs The script for Underworld 4 then was penned by John Hlavin (The Shield) and went through some revisions by J. Michael Straczynski (Ninja Assassin, Changeling, and Spider-Man comic book writer). A compelling mix of talent/genres €“ I guess - but there's no life left in this franchise surely? Series regular Len Wiseman produces. A release of Jan 20th, 2012 is planned.