9/26/2010

Kate Beckinsale returns for Underworld 4

After taking a break from the last film in the Underworld series, Kate Beckinsale has signed on to reprise her role as the Death Dealer Selene. Word of a fourth film was revealed not long after the success of  2009's Underworld: Rise of the Lycans.

The next flick is expected to be in 3-D, the script was written by John Hlavin with a rewrite by J. Michael Straczynski(Babylon 5). Screen Gems  has set a tentative release date set for early in 2012.  A director has not yet been named.

Without Beckinsale the series didn't exactly slow down. All three Underworld films have grossed over $90M worldwide, for a total box office take of nearly $300M. 

Good news. You can really go wrong with vampires vs. werewolves, but even so I thought Rise of the Lycans was a bit of a step down creatively. Part of the reason was the loss of Selene as a driving character, since she's really what the stories have been centered around all these years.