he original Underworld was the project of a lifetime for director Len Wiseman. Not only was it his first feature film, but it also brought him together with his future wife, star Kate Beckinsale. Though the film was only a modest success in the theater, it has steadily gained fans in its second life on DVD and cable. It was perhaps inevitable, then, that a sequel film should follow. Two years later, Wiseman's low-budget, high-concept brainchild has become a bona fide franchise.
Underworld: Evolution, which opens on Jan. 20, reunites Wiseman with his on- and off-screen muse and the sleek alternate universe in which vampires and werewolves continue to wage war on one another. Scott Speedman also returns as Beckinsale's love interest, Michael Corvin, now a hybrid of vampire and lycan who may help bring the two enemies closer to peace. But the real key to ending the ancient hostilities is in the hands of Beckinsale's vampire warrior Selene.
Last year, Science Fiction Weekly toured the sets of the sequel during production in Vancouver, B.C., where Wiseman, Beckinsale and Speedman talked about returning to the world of Underworld.
Was there anything that you particularly enjoyed about the first movie that made you say yes to this?
Beckinsale: No [laughs]. No, it was a very big change of direction for me. I had never done a film where I'd actually been sort of tough and active. I'm a very un-athletic sort of rather wet, frightened person in life. It was quite a challenge for me to play an action heroine and pull off all that training when I can't catch a ball if it's coming my way, and that kind of thing. So that was really interesting. I mean, it does seem to have slightly spiraled out of control now.
You've done a few action films since then.
Beckinsale: I've done quite a few more, yeah. And it's still extraordinary to me that anybody will actually buy that, which is absolutely credit to Len and to the stunt team and to everybody else. But it was really fun. It was such a fun movie. We all had such a lovely time. I had never done an action movie, and Scott hadn't either. And Len had never done a movie, and the writer had never written a movie. So everybody was really very excited to be making this thing for not very much money and make the best thing that we could do. And, you know, I think we really pulled it off.
After the surprising success of the first one, did you feel pressure doing a sequel?
Wiseman: It's really strange, because the first one was something that was just developed in my living room. Nobody was peeking through the windows and all that, so we were kind of left alone. ... And now everybody, I mean, on the sites and everything, there's a lot of interest there [and] also speculation about what the movie's going to be, which is really strange for me because I'm not used to working on a project that so many people have an opinion about, and hopes for and speculation and different things. So it's odd. It's a weird experience for me.
What's it like to be working together again?
Beckinsale: It's unusual in this business. You are such gypsies that you don't often get to work with the same gang. You may get the odd one person every 10 years that you've come across before, but it was such a lovely group, and the sequel idea is a cool idea too. So it was a nice story to tell.
Can you talk about working with a director who is also your husband? How did your personal relationship affect your working relationship?
Beckinsale: I'm not scared of him now, as I was.
Wiseman: That's a shame. Yeah, actually there's no intimidation factor, unfortunately. To be honest, it's, it's fantastic because there's a lot of stuff that you're kind of nervous about that you can't really discuss with your actress.
Beckinsale: "Could you hold your stomach in, please?" ... Which you can say to your wife.
Wiseman: Yeah. So there's a lot of things like that. It's more comfortable, and you can have discussions about certain things where you're not nervous about how they're going to take your comment. And we are on the same page so often that it helps just to cut through a lot of the tiptoeing around that a director has to do.
Beckinsale: You still have to do it with him, though.
Wiseman: Yeah. But it cuts down on a lot of that. And I find it makes it much easier.
Beckinsale: It means we also get to be in the same country. It's quite difficult conducting a relationship in this business, where you're separated for months and months. And so that we were both able to work and were able to actually sleep in the same bed is a miraculous treat.
Scott, how does your character fit into the sequel?
Speedman: Oh, crap, I don't know [laughs]. Jeez, I don't know. What would you say?
Beckinsale: What are we allowed to say?
Wiseman: Your major role has some things we don't want to give away. ... But he's one of the puzzle pieces, I guess would be [the best way to] put it, I think.
Beckinsale: He provides most of the nipples in the movie.
Speedman: I'm naked a lot, which is good.
How did the makeup process change for you?
Speedman: From the first one, I really enjoyed it. This one, it's a little more intricate. We won't say too much, but it's a little more detailed, so it's a little longer. But for whatever reason, I really like that process. The guys that I get to work with are amazing, and they're very nice, and they are like artists. They work really hard. ... And in terms of just physically, I love that you kind of get to—it sounds kind of corny—but you can kind of disappear into the whole makeup thing, and I love that. And I love jumping around in it and being kind of crazy.
Beckinsale: Plus, you look hot.
Speedman: Yeah, I look pretty good in it.
Wiseman: He becomes a different person when he's on set with the makeup.
Beckinsale: It's the mask.
Speedman: It's the mask. But it is really fun, and they've been letting me do a lot more of the stunts and stuff like that. So I love that.
How did you approach the physical aspects of this movie—the fight scenes and the action sequences?
Wiseman: The action scenes and such are much bigger. There's a lot more going on. It's just, scale-wise it's a much bigger movie. There's not a lot more fighting.
Beckinsale: I think there is. There is for me. There is more.
Wiseman: There is actually more for you, yeah. Actually, I'm lying. There's more for [Scott] as well. There's less fighting for me.
Can you give any specifics on that?
Wiseman: [In] the end sequence there's a lot more transformations with—God, I don't want to give [it away]. [There are] things going on with a bigger battle for Selene. We've got this intense helicopter action. We've got people jumping out of helicopters. A big scene with that.
Beckinsale: [There's] a whole medieval sequence.
Wiseman: Yeah, in the opening we go into this medieval sequence, and we get to see Viktor and his team of death dealers, and there's quite a big opening battle that takes place. ... We've got a little of the werewolf versus the vampire action in medieval times.
What did you learn from making the first movie that you wanted to do differently on this one?
Wiseman: Everything, really. I mean, Underworld was my first film, so there's a lot of things I had never experienced before. I'm finding this one about, about 70 percent less stressful. It was shot in Budapest as well, and I had about maybe 15 people that spoke English. I'm exaggerating a bit, but most of the crew did not speak English. So it was just a tough experience for me to battle through all that, being the first film. So there's a lot that I learned from that one. I mean, I could go on and on about what you learn from a first film. And budget-wise, it helps to have a bit more to do a bit more. And so we can scale it up.
Beckinsale: It's still not an enormous budget. It's still fairly modest for the kind of movie, isn't it?
Wiseman: Oh, yeah. No, I mean in terms of like Van Helsing size.
Beckinsale: We decided not to have an enormous red cartoon monster in this one, so we saved [money].
You've done a lot to modernize the traditional mythology of vampires and werewolves in these films. Was that always the goal?
Wiseman: I'm not a huge fan of a lot of the older films and the older legends. I actually approached Underworld as doing horror characters in more of an action film, and actually changing it up. I mean, the whole thing about just modernizing it, I wanted to see something different. So it was my attempt to kind of approach it as almost a straightforward action film that happens to have these horror characters in it.
What didn't you like about them?
Wiseman: I'm not into the, I guess what I would call the religious vampires, that you can hold up a cross and, and they cower. The reflections in the glass and a lot of [those] things. ... I see it as there's a category of fantasy vampires, and then there's reality vampires in my world. And ours is more based in science. It's about a rare blood disease, and treated more like a plague than anything that's too fantastic. The cross stuff, the not seeing your reflection in the mirror, that's just a bit too out there for me.
As actors, how did you approach the characters the second time around?
Speedman: For this one, it just seems more fun for me this time. It's a lot more dynamic, and I feel [there's] less watching the action going on around me and reacting and being kind of a pedestrian in all the action, but a lot more dynamic of a character. So it's a lot more fun that way.
Wiseman: Yeah, you got kind of pulled around a lot in the first one.
Speedman: Yeah, which was cool, which was fun, but this is a lot more part of the story, it feels like.
Beckinsale: I was in a slightly different position than I've ever been in before, because obviously I've not been married to the director. So I started being involved in the process, just in terms of hearing about the development, very early on, which was a great treat. It doesn't usually happen. Not that I had any kind of, you know, Yoko Ono sort of input at that point [laughs].
And how has the relationship between the two main characters changed?
Beckinsale: In the first movie, they obviously they met up and they were in very different positions; he was human and she was vampire. And she was doing a lot of bringing him up to speed with what was happening, and he was just generally sort of confused and not really knowing what was going on. And by the time they start this movie, obviously he's no longer just human, and they just got a little bit more time to get to know each other. So they're much more partners than they were before.
Speedman: Yeah, there's just more of a connection, too.
Wiseman: I mean actually, I was intending that the first film ended with the relationship beginning. I know a lot of people [thought] there was this Romeo and Juliet sort of aspect to it, and it wasn't necessarily that. There was the story between Lucian and his love that was the parallel to the more traditional Romeo and Juliet story. ... Selene hated humans from the get-go, so that relationship was really not given a chance to start until the film was kind of closing. So I felt like, if I had done my job, at the end of the movie people would speculate, will there be a relationship? What will that relationship be like? Will it build? And so this one, now we get into what happens to that relationship.
At what point did you know that you could do a sequel?
Wiseman: The theatrical numbers were impressive to the studio. We made $100 million worldwide. So for a $19 to $20 million film, that's quite a huge success. So once that happened I got calls from the studio. I mean, they wanted a sequel right away, and so we started developing from that point. And then just the DVD sales was another, another spike. ... It did over what the box office did, which rarely happens. ... It was impressive to them and a big deal, and so it just kind of fueled the fire for it.
When you were developing the story, did you think about putting in any elements that might lead to a third film?
Wiseman: Yeah, I mean, there's a lot there. Yes, there's actually a sequel, as well as prequel ideas.
Beckinsale: What?!? [Laughs.]
Wiseman: Yeah. I'm still seeing how this one goes. But there's no set plan in terms of ideas for either.
Did you put anything in the first one that was intended to lead to a sequel?
Wiseman: We did for the first one.
Beckinsale: They had a whole plan the first one.
Wiseman: You'll find that in this film, whether the characters have died in the first film or not, there's a lot of stuff that's still being discovered and uncovered about them that's in this film that we always knew we were going to do in the first one. So yeah, and there's aspects of this one that ... absolutely could carry over, yeah.
Some critics were excited by the idea of vampires versus werewolves, but were disappointed in the original film. Do you hope to win them back with the sequel?
Wiseman: I think the second movie will impress a lot of people, and it'll upset the same amount of people.
Beckinsale: Everyone's always disappointed in some way.
Wiseman: Some people will love it. Other people will hate it. And that will be the case for any movie anybody ever makes.
Beckinsale: Well, can I just say something? I do think that the way that the trailer [was edited], the trailer was very impressive, and I think people were expecting a movie that had a much bigger budget than ours did. And I think that the expectation from the trailer was to see something that could compete with The Matrix or any other $80 to $100 million movie. It was made for $19 to $20 million. So I think there may have been a slight [reaction] like, "Ooh, there's not quite as much action as I would have expected of a movie of this scale." And it wasn't a movie of that scale. So possibly it'll be a little bit more realistic with people sort of maybe getting what they think they're going to get this time.
What experience do you think the audience will have as they're watching the movie in the theater?
Wiseman: Oh, God. Their reaction?
Beckinsale: Profound change.
Wiseman: Yes.
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