Movies: SELENE MUST MAKE THE ULTIMATE SACRIFICE IN “UNDERWORLD: BLOOD WARS”

An immensely gifted English actress who has proven to be one of the industry’s most versatile and charismatic performers, Kate Beckinsale returns in the fifth installment of the fan favorite sci-fi fantasy, Underworld: Blood Wars, where she reprises her role as the iconic action hero Selene.

Underworld: Blood Wars follows the next generation of Vampires and Lycans (a breed of Werewolves) and the war that continues to wage between the two species. In the film, Vampire Death Dealer Selene fends off brutal attacks from both the Lycan clan and the Vampire faction that has betrayed her. Aided by her only allies, David (Theo James) and his father Thomas (Charles Dance), she must end the eternal war between Lycans and Vampires, even if it means making the ultimate sacrifice.

For Beckinsale’s character, the stakes have never been higher. “There’s been this longstanding feud between Vampires and Lycans but in Blood Wars, Selene’s very much disenfranchised from both factions,” the actress explains. “She’s not really part of the team of vampires anymore and she’s on the run from everyone. Selene’s tough and incredibly inventive about killing monsters and all of that, but her motivation has always been love. In Blood Wars, it’s the love for her daughter Eve that keeps Selene going.”

Blood Wars pushes Underworld mythology into exciting new realms while drawing on the strengths that continue to thrill fans 14 years after the series’ inception. “The thing that makes Underworld so successful is the fact that you’re immersed in this vampire world which is not real, and yet the drama between all these creatures is universal,” says direcor Anna Foerster. “I hope audiences are wowed by the action but I also hope people enjoy where Selene goes emotionally. After all this fighting and hardship, at the end she comes to a place where she has a new outlook on life. Selene is ultimately a tragic character, but if she can also evoke hope for audiences, then I think that’s a pretty big thing.”

Beckinsale expects Underworld: Blood Wars to satisfy a key expectation for fans of the franchise by showcasing Selene at her most warrior-like. “All sorts of horrible things happen to Selene but then she manages to dispatch everybody because she gets really pissed off,” the actress says. In between the fast and furious combat scenes, Underworld: Blood Wars offers a darkly thrilling cinematic vision of uncommon integrity.

“It’s difficult these days to get a genre movie of this type made if it’s not based on an existing comic book or video game or something like that,” Beckinsale muses. “Underworld is original, and given the fact that it also has a female lead there are a lot of reasons I feel really privileged to be one of those few women who gets to do this kind of movie. I think audiences like to see women taking names and kicking ass but I also think at this point, there’s a historical legacy element to Underworld that people find appealing.”

Opening across the Philippines on Friday, December 02, “Underworld: Blood Wars” is distributed by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International.

Movie News: “BLOOD WARS” GETS FIRST WOMAN DIRECTOR FOR “UNDERWORLD” FRANCHISE

To bring Columbia Pictures' epic action thriller Underworld: Blood Wars to the big screen – the latest instalment in the blockbuster franchise -- the producers turned to their first-ever female director, Anna Foerster.

Besides directing several episodes of the hit TV show Outlander, Foerster has also served as the second unit director on the sci-fi films Alien: Resurrection, The Day After Tomorrow and Æon Flux among others. Underworld: Blood Wars is her feature debut.

Starring Kate Beckinsale, Theo James (the Divergent franchise), Bradley James (TV's Merlin) and Charles Dance (Game of Thrones), Underworld: Blood Wars follows Vampire death dealer, Selene (Beckinsale) as she fends off brutal attacks from both the Lycan clan and the Vampire faction that betrayed her. With her only allies, David (Theo James) and his father Thomas (Dance), she must stop the eternal war between Lycans and Vampires, even if it means she has to make the ultimate sacrifice.

“Underworld is a really exciting series that gives you really amazing opportunities as a filmmaker, visually and creatively, to create a new world,” says Foerster. “With Underworld you have rules that are very specific for the story and for the franchise, but you can veer off from that. On purely the visual and creative side, it is extremely exciting.”

“Because we have a lot of action scenes, it was very clear to me from the beginning that every single action scene has to be different,” says Foerster. “There has to be different styles in every action sequence so it is not like just another action film.”

Foerster cut her teeth as a cinematographer and feels that she brings a strong visual concept to her Underworld film. She has at least five scenes, including one action sequence, that are all shot in one take.

“What I bring to this movie is a defined visual concept,” she says, “the way the camera moves, the type of shots, the way I introduce characters in certain scenes.”

She is especially pleased with the characterisation. The director says that her favourite vampire film outside the Underworld series is the original, Swedish version of Let the Right One In, which is a critically acclaimed, character-driven piece.

“Let The Right One In was all about characters,” she notes. “It was so character-driven. And the character arcs in our script have evolved and developed over time. They have come a long way. To me, that is the most exciting part — to work with these exciting actors and to work on character. That sounds funny because if you think of Underworld and vampires and werewolves you don’t immediately think of character arcs.

“But maybe this is the secret of the original two Underworld films,” she adds, “that there was deep character in the backstory and in the mythology.”

“The honor I have on this movie is to be able to work with some really, really exciting actors,” concludes Foerster. “And I can create new roles, which we did for our story. There will be some surprises with different vampires that have different capabilities and different backgrounds.”

Opening across the Philippines on Dec. 02, “Underworld: Bloodwars” is distributed by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International.

Movies: A HERO IS REBORN IN PAYOFF TRAILER OF “UNDERWORLD: BLOOD WARS”

Underworld lead character Selene must undergo a transformation if she wants to save her kind in the payoff trailer of Columbia Pictures' “Underworld: Blood Wars,” the latest installment in the blockbuster franchise. 

            Check out the trailer here at https://youtu.be/8j43WCOevJw and watch the action-thriller when it opens nationwide on November 30, 2016.

            Directed by Anna Foerster, “Underworld: Blood Wars” stars Kate Beckinsale, Theo James (the “Divergent” franchise) and Charles Dance (“Game of Thrones”).

            “Underworld: Blood Wars” follows Vampire death dealer, Selene (Beckinsale) as she fends off brutal attacks from both the Lycan clan and the Vampire faction that betrayed her. With her only allies, David (James) and his father Thomas (Dance), she must stop the eternal war between Lycans and Vampires, even if it means she has to make the ultimate sacrifice.

            The action-thriller also stars Tobias Menzies (“Outlander”), Lara Pulver (“Da Vinci’s Demons”), James Faulkner (“Da Vinci’s Demons”), Peter Andersson (“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”), Bradley James (“Merlin”), Daisy Head (“The Syndicate”) and  Clementine Nicholson as Lena.

“Underworld: Blood Wars” is distributed by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International.

Movies: “UNDERWORLD: BLOOD WARS” PICKS UP AFTER END OF “AWAKENING”

Columbia Pictures' epic action thriller “Underworld: Blood Wars,” the latest instalment in the blockbuster franchise, picks up in the aftermath of 2012’s “Underworld: Awakening” in which Selene (Kate Beckinsale) discovered that she had a daughter, Eve, with her former lover, Michael Corvin. At the end of the film, the reunited mother and daughter embark on a hunt for the missing father.

“We are back with Selene in this film,” says producer David Kern. “Selene is on the run and is having a difficult time being reunited with her daughter.” The mother-daughter team get separated along the way and Selene meets up with another ally from “Awakening,” David (Theo James). “Together, Selene and David are trying to find the daughter that she’s been separated from,” Kern continues. “And they get clogged up with a new Lycan, Marius, who is a bad-ass dude, much like Lucian [Michael Sheen] in the first film, but even scarier and nastier and more dangerous.”

The imposing character of Marius is a Super Lycan and he is lusting after the blood of both Selene and Eve as he bids to become the most powerful being of all, and to bring a final victory to the Lycan species. Marius is played by “Game of Thrones” star Tobias Menzies.

“Underworld is a really exciting series that gives you really amazing opportunities as a filmmaker, visually and creatively, to create a new world,” shares director Anna Foerster.

“With Underworld you have rules that are very specific for the story and for the franchise, but you can veer off from that. On purely the visual and creative side, it is extremely exciting.”

One of the rules to which the director refers pertains to the visual style, with all of the Underworld films to date defined by a near-monochromatic colour palette, heavy on blue and black.

“There is a certain expectation there but within that there is a playfulness to take advantage of,” says Foerster. “This film is going into different environments and we have a different feel and different colours.”

In “Blood Wars,” the audience is taken into a Nordic vampire coven in the far north. “When we go into the north and into the snow, there is definitely a different colour palette,” Foerster adds. “Here people wear white and they wear furs and they have white skin. That was a fun way to push this into another direction.

“But, that said, we’ve evolved a new direction in monochrome as well. I like the monochrome. It is part of the franchise’s style and I think it is cool when you are in that dark-bluish, monochrome, eastern coven world. And then you go into the north and you see greys, silvers and whites.

“Then it becomes really interesting when they mix, which happens towards the end of the movie; the two environments mix and you suddenly have that contrast.”

This contrast should excite fans, echoes producer David Kern. “We go to a few different environments that haven’t been seen in an Underworld movie before, and they have required different designs and different ways of thinking,” he says.

“Everyone thinks of Underworld as very dark and blue, a city-type landscape, so we are having fun opening that up and sending Selene and David off into different regions. That is really cool.”

Opening across the Philippines on Nov. 30, “Underworld: Blood Wars” is distributed by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International.

Movies: “UNDERWORLD: BLOOD WARS” CHARACTERS PREPARE FOR BATTLE IN SOLO POSTERS

Columbia Pictures has released the character posters for “Underworld: Blood Wars,” the latest installment in the blockbuster Underworld franchise. Getting their individual one-sheets are Selene (Kate Beckinsale), David (Theo James), Thomas (Charles Dance) and Tobias Menzies (Marius).

Check out the posters below and watch the action-thriller when it opens nationwide on November 30, 2016.

Directed by Anna Foerster, “Underworld: Blood Wars” stars Kate Beckinsale, Theo James (the “Divergent” franchise) and Charles Dance (“Game of Thrones”).

“Underworld: Blood Wars” follows Vampire death dealer, Selene (Beckinsale) as she fends off brutal attacks from both the Lycan clan and the Vampire faction that betrayed her. With her only allies, David (James) and his father Thomas (Dance), she must stop the eternal war between Lycans and Vampires, even if it means she has to make the ultimate sacrifice.

The action-thriller also stars Tobias Menzies (“Outlander”), Lara Pulver (“Da Vinci’s Demons”), James Faulkner (“Da Vinci’s Demons”), Peter Andersson (“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”), Bradley James (“Merlin”), Daisy Head (“The Syndicate”) and Clementine Nicholson as Lena.

“Underworld: Blood Wars” is distributed by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International.

Movies: “UNDERWORLD: BLOOD WARS” NEW TRAILER HINTS AT FINALITY

“Every blood line must end,” or so proclaims the newly released trailer of Columbia Pictures' “Underworld: Blood Wars,” the latest installment in the blockbuster Underworld franchise.

Check out the trailer here at https://youtu.be/W4qK6tTnBxo and watch the action-thriller when it opens nationwide on November 30, 2016.

Directed by Anna Foerster, “Underworld: Blood Wars” stars Kate Beckinsale, Theo James (the “Divergent” franchise) and Charles Dance (“Game of Thrones”).

“Underworld: Blood Wars” follows Vampire death dealer, Selene (Beckinsale) as she fends off brutal attacks from both the Lycan clan and the Vampire faction that betrayed her. With her only allies, David (James) and his father Thomas (Dance), she must stop the eternal war between Lycans and Vampires, even if it means she has to make the ultimate sacrifice.

The action-thriller also stars Tobias Menzies (“Outlander”), Lara Pulver (“Da Vinci’s Demons”), James Faulkner (“Da Vinci’s Demons”), Peter Andersson (“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”), Bradley James (“Merlin”), Daisy Head (“The Syndicate”) and Clementine Nicholson as Lena.

“Underworld: Bloodwars” is distributed by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International.

Movies: SELENE BACK WITH A VENGEANCE IN “UNDERWORLD: BLOOD WARS” FIRST TRAILER

Columbia Pictures has just unveiled the first trailer for “Underworld: Blood Wars,” the latest installment in the blockbuster Underworld franchise. Check out the trailer at https://youtu.be/foG7g5M0qw8 and watch “Underworld: Blood Wars” when it opens across the Philippines on November 30, 2016.

Directed by Anna Foerster ("Outlander"), “Underworld: Blood Wars” stars Kate Beckinsale as the rebellious vampire hybrid Selene, Theo James (the “Divergent” franchise) as fellow vampire David and Charles Dance (“Game of Thrones”) as vampire elder, Thomas.

“Underworld: Blood Wars” follows Vampire death dealer, Selene (Beckinsale) as she fends off brutal attacks from both the Lycan clan and the Vampire faction that betrayed her. With her only allies, David (James) and his father Thomas (Dance), she must stop the eternal war between Lycans and Vampires, even if it means she has to make the ultimate sacrifice.

The action-thriller also stars Tobias Menzies (“Outlander”), Lara Pulver (“Da Vinci’s Demons”), James Faulkner (“Da Vinci’s Demons”), Peter Andersson (“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”), Bradley James (“Merlin”), Daisy Head (“The Syndicate”) and Clementine Nicholson as Lena.

“Underworld: Bloodwars” is distributed by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International.