Screen Gems and Lakeshore Entertainment have released a full length trailer for their upcoming continuation of the Underworld franchise.
The film series began with Underworld in 2003, and continued in 2006 with Underworld: Evolution.
The franchise covers the story of a modern day war between werewolves and vampires, specifically following the Vampire warrior Selene (Kate Beckinsale) as she becomes embroiled in the war and the political turmoil of the Vampire society.
This film is the conclusion to that trilogy, and the third movie – Underworld: Rise of the Lycans – is a prequel to the first film, explaining the origin of the creatures and their war.
This new film takes place 15 years after the events of Evolution, with Selene having been captured and held in some kind of suspended animation. During that time, things in the world outside have changed.
The Vampire/Werewolf war has been put on hold as humans are now the greatest threat to both creature’s societies.
Meanwhile, BioCom is attempting to perfect the virus which originally created the Werewolves in an effort to design super werewolves for which to hunt the vampires and regular werewolves. Clearly, this seems a lot like trading one dangerous element for a more dangerous element, so I’m sure that will be one of the themes of the film.
Selene also discovers she has a daughter who carries both Vampire and Lycan genes. Likely this daughter will be a sort of “chosen one” who unites the two creatures’ communities (and her name is “Eve,” so, you know… symbolism).
Underworld: Awakening is directed by Måns Mårlind and Björn Stein – their English language debut, and the screenplay was wrtitten by J Michael Straczynski. In addition to Beckinsale, the film stars Charles Dance, Michael Ealy and India Eisley. It hits theaters January 20, 2012.
