UNDERWORLD's teaser poster
© Screen Gems
Underworld
By: Coming AttractionsDate: Wednesday, October 29, 2003
Genre:
Horror/Action.
Studio:
Screen Gems.
Production Company:
Lakeshore Entertaiment.
Project Phase:
In the Can.
Who's In It:
Kate Beckensale (Selene); Scott Speedman (Michael); Shane Brolly (Kraven); Michael Sheen (Lucian); Bill Nighy (Viktor); Erwin Leder (Singe); Sophia Myles (Erika); Scott McElroy (Soren); Richard Cetrone (Pierce); Mike Mukatis (Taylor); Todd Schneider (Trix); Wentworth Miller (Lockwood).
Who's Making It:
Len Wiseman (Director); Danny McBride (Screenwriter); Gary Lucchesi, Tom Rosenberg, Richard S. Wright (Producers);
Tony Pierce-Roberts (Director of Photography); Martin Hunter (Editor).
Premise:
She is a vampire. He is a werewolf. For centuries their two clans have been adversaries, each seeking each other out in a wholesale effort to destroy the other. These two blood enemies will unwittenly fall in love with each other, and the resulting chaos will either find a means to end their war or destroy both species forever.
Release Date:
September 19, 2003.
Comments:
Think of it as Romeo and Juliet, except Romeo is a werewolf and Juliet is a vampire. Shakespeare might even have approved.
Scoop Feedback:
July 24, 2002... With today's announcement that Felicity star Scott Speedman has been cast as the werewolf
Michael, things are heating up for the project known as Underworld. Kate Beckinsale (Pearl Harbor) had already
been announced as the vampire Selene, and a September start date announced. First-time director Len Wiseman will helm the production which will shoot in eastern Europe this fall. [Source: The Hollywood Reporter.]
August 19, 2002... Over at Screenwriters Utopia, Christopher Wehner has reviewed a draft of Underworld. What's the verdict? "Underworld is a wild story when at its best vivid and engrossing, containing some of the best action sequences I've read to date," writes Wehner in his favorable review. Some story SPOILERS are contained in the review. [First appeared at Screenwriters Utopia.]
April 18, 2003...,/i> After playing a nurse torn between the love of two soldiers in PEARL HARBOR, Kate Beckinsale is growing fangs and brandishing sidearms in her next role as a immortal vampire in UNDERWORLD. The film is about a vamp (Beckinsale) and a werewolf (Spott Speedman) who meet and fall in love, even though their two groups have been mortal enemies for hundreds of years. It's kind of like ROMEO AND JULIET except with supernatural carnage.
The UGO Network has partnered with UNDERWORLD and is showing the film's teaser exclusively on their website. Judging from the trailer's look, the film is looking like a fusion of BLADE, THE MATRIX, EQUILIBRIUM and Quentin Tarantino by way of William Shakespeare. UNDERWORLD opens in theaters September 19, 2003.
Click here to download the UNDERWORLD teaser trailer!
July 23, 2003... Apple's trailer website has now placed the full super-duper trailer for Screen Gems' UNDERWORLD online. You've got four choices to choose from: either full-screen or high, medium or low resolution. You can also choose to download the trailer to your computer.
Enter the UNDERWORLD trailer website here!
July 29, 2003... The team behind Screen Gems' upcoming UNDERWORLD are working on a new supernatural/action project. Sci-Fi Wire reports that director Len Wiseman and writer Danny McBride are developing BLACK CHAPTER which Wiseman describes as "THE SIXTH SENSE meets LA FEMME NIKITA."
"It's the CIA using ethereal agents. ... I've never seen a ghost movie done as a slick action film," Wiseman told Sci-Fi Wire. "There's thrillers. There's comedies. There's horror. Never mixing ghosts with an adrenaline-full, kick-ass action movie"
The project is with Walt Disney Pictures and is being written right now. And is Wiseman writing it in mind for his real-life sweetie (and UNDERWORLD star) Kate Beckinsale to star in? "Kate's way too expensive," Wiseman kids with Wire. "I'm trying to talk to her about it." [Sci-Fi Wire.]
August 21, 2003... The newly launched Screenwriter's Voice website has gotten off on the right foot. Not only did the site open its doors with an exclusive interview with BLADE's David Goyer, today they have another exclusive interview with UNDERWORLD co-writer Danny McBride. McBride explains the genesis of not just UNDERWORLD but how his career in Hollywood got launched thanks to his stuntman work and the strength of a sci-fi spec script called THE ZOOKEEPERS. But it's UNDERWORLD that's currently propelling McBride's name into the players field, and it's UNDERWORLD McBride talks about...
"Right now we're the #1 website for Sony, ever, over SPIDER-MAN," says a delighted McBride. "And a couple of weeks ago we had a million trailer downloads in one day. And this is a 21 million dollar movie, it's not a 140 million dollar movie. And a lot of that goes to Len [Weisman], too, because he's just got fantastic images. But Kevin [Grevioux, UNDERWORLD's other writer] had come up with a premise that... had been done before you know, I think there was 'The Werewolf Versus the Vampire Woman' in 1952 or something. But [he] came up with a really solid concept that was interesting to people."
Find out more about how UNDERWORLD got sold and how it launched McBride's writing career over on Screenwriter's Voice. [That's Screenwriter's Voice.]
September 6, 2003... In anticipation of the September 19 release of UNDERWORLD, Sony Pictures has placed the music video for one of the songs on the film's soundtrack online. "Worms of the Earth" is the track performed by the band Finch, and it's available in two media formats at the links below:
Windows Media Player -- low bandwidth
Windows Media Player -- high bandwidth
Real Player -- low bandwidth
Real Player -- high bandwidth
[Sony Pictures.]
September 8, 2003... White Wolf Publishing Inc., the roleplaying game company behind VAMPIRE: THE MASQUERADE and WEREWOLF: THE APOCALYPSE, and horror novelist Nancy A. Collins have filed a lawsuit against Sony Pictures, Screen Gems and Lakeshore Entertainment alleging that the upcoming movie UNDERWORLD infringes on White Wolf and Collins' copyrights. The suit was filed September 5 in the District Court of Atlanta, Georgia.
The game company claims there are over 60 similarities shared between their two roleplaying games and the film's storyline. Furthermore, the lawsuit charges that the premise of UNDERWORLD borrows heavily from Collins' short story "Love of Monsters". "Apparently they are marketing this as a remake of ROMEO AND JULIET," says Collins in a statement released by White Wolf. "What I think they really mean is that it's an on-screen adaptation of my story."
White Wolf has been publishing role-playing games (RPGs) since 1991 and is probably best known for its VAMPIRE line of adventures, allowing players to act out fictional supernatural characters. One important ingredient in the VAMPIRE and WEREWOLF universes is that both races are at war with each other, a trait that is promoted in the trailers of UNDERWORLD.
"Ours is a huge fictional world, supported by over 200 volumes of fictional material," states Mike Tinney, President of White Wolf. "It's infuriating to see UNDERWORLD's script riddled with our property.
Tinney adds, "Our fans think they're going to be seeing our film. Of course, if the movie gets released, in a way they will be."
So far Sony Pictures, Screen Gems and Lakeshore Entertainment have not responded to White Wolf or Collins' lawsuit. UNDERWORLD is scheduled to open on September 19.
[Reports sent in from multiple readers.]
October 29, 2003... Here's an extra Halloween treat for fans of vampires and werewolves (and British actresses who wear skin-tight black vinyl costumes): Screen Gems is having a special re-release of their hit action/horror film UNDERWORLD this coming weekend. On October 31 to November 2, audiences can see UNDERWORLD on the big screen again. The film will be running in 1,200 theaters nationwide, so dress up as your favorite UNDERWORLD bloodsucker or Lycan and catch a showing. [Screen Gems.]
Official Web Site:
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