The first full length trailer for Underworld: Rise of the Lycans has just come online and even without Len Wiseman at the helm this addition to the Underworld stable is looking very promising.
Wiseman, who directed the über-stylish Underworld and Underworld: Evolution has always maintained that the Underworld storyline was intended as a trilogy.
In an exclusive interview with iFMagazine back in June 2006 he said, "The third film is going to be a prequel. It will be the origin story and we find out things we didn't know about Lucian; he'll have a much bigger part in it. It will be about the creation [of the races] and what started the war. It will be a period piece."Rise of the Lycans gives us the history of the blood-feud between the Vampires and their former slaves, the Lycans, the broad strokes of which we already know: Lucien, a Lycan slave, falls in love with Sonja, a Vampire and daughter of Viktor, Lord of the Vampires. Under Lucien’s leadership the werewolves rise up against their masters in a titanic struggle to win their freedom but at some point Lucien is recaptured, along with Sonja, and Viktor cruelly puts his daughter to death.
For continuity with the previous movies we have Wiseman as producer and Danny McBride as writer. McBride is joined by Dirk Blackman, writer and executive producer of Outlander and writer for the forthcoming Conan movie. Bill Nighy as the cruel Viktor, Michael Sheen as Lucien and Shane Brolly as Kraven reprise their roles, although Kate Beckinsale won’t be returning as Selene as the events of Rise of the Lycans predate her entry into the story. The role of Sonja is played by Rhona Mitra (Shooter) and there’s more than a shade of Beckinsale's Selene in her performance - in both appearance and attitude. Which is as it should be as Viktor’s motivation for turning the mortal Selene in the first place appears to have been her similarity to his dead daughter (the very daughter he put to death).
The big unknown in all of this is director Patrick Tatopoulos, who makes his directorial debut (if you exclude Bird of Passage, a 17 minute movie he directed back in 2000). Tatopoulos’ expertise has been in special effects and the art department, and it was in this capacity that he worked on the previous Underworld movies, designing the creature effects. Here’s hoping he is just as good a director.
Underworld: Rise of the Lycans will be unleashed in January 2009.
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