10 Things You Didn’t Know About Underworld

Taking two classic characters and pitting them against each other is such an early 2000’s kind of thing. Freddy vs Jason, Alien vs Predator, and now vampires vs werewolves. It’s such a fun thing to think up and the possibilities are endless. Underworld really does feel like it came out in the years following The Matrix but it’s impossible to watch the film and not acknowledge the staying power that the story and ideas had. It’s gone on to have multiple sequels, prequels, and whatever other quels are out there and I would bet money that we haven’t yet seen the last of this franchise. Heaven knows Kate Beckinsale still looks damned good in black rubber.

1. They really leaned into making a comic book style film visually while also adding a fair amount of mystery with the characters and the story. The colors or the lack of colors was something that Len Wiseman always felt was important for the tone of his film.

2. Director Len Wiseman’s music video background helped him with the chaotic schedule. Unlike some films with ridiculous budgets, they were often times shooting sequences in much shorter times. The stunt training for Kate Beckinsale and Scott Speedman was only a couple of weeks where the actors on The Matrix had more like six months.

3. The film was shot for 23 million. They shot in Budapest to save money and they were able to cut their budget way down because of it.

4. They tried to approach the vampires and lycans from a scientific perspective instead of the usual fantasy ideas that you hear most of the time. Writer Kevin Grevioux has a background in genetic engineering so he was more interested in making the creatures seem real instead of fantastical.

5. It was written as something of a metaphor for interracial relationships.

6. Originally Viktor was going to be dying from a blood disorder that was killing vampires and lycans but they changed it to him coming back to life slowly. The shot of him with the tubes in his body as it is coming “back to life” was almost identical to a sketch done by Len Wiseman.

7. There was a lot of talk about Selene’s costume. She smelled like rubber and her coat was very heavy during the action scenes, but the tightness of it became a massive selling point and there are multiple shots of her ass in the trailer.

8. Wiseman really wanted to shoot the flashback sequences of Lucian’s torture and witnessing his love being killed. He had to stay on schedule and then only had one day to shoot the scene. Another scene that they had to fight to keep in was Michael Sheen’s explanation to Scott Speedman that gave some background to the war between the two species. Questions about what it did to the pacing were eventually overridden by the director and they were able to keep the shots in the film.

9. Viktor is made to be so scary to everyone in the film that the first time he does anything physically they wanted it to be really cool. That is why they had him kill Raze with the neckbreak and sword so easily.

10. There was a lot of consideration about what Michael (Speedman) would look like once he turned into the vamp/lycan hybrid. They didn’t want him to be too much like a lycan because there had already been something of a romance between him and Selene and they needed him to remain somewhat sexy.