Underworld: Evolution — A Visit to the Set

Way back in January, I was on the set of Underworld: Evolution in Vancouver, B.C., on behalf of Horror.com — finally, the hush-hush gag order has been lifted and I can talk about it. I feel like the Deep Throat of horror movies! Not that I have any revelations on par with Tricky Dick’s dubious doings, but I did get a good gander at Kate Beckinsale clad in skintight black leather from bust-to-toe. That’s worth at least 15 seconds of fame, isn’t it?

On our way to the set where we genre journalists would be interviewing Kate, her husband and director Len Wiseman, and costar Scott Speedman, we passed a handwritten sign that read, “Caution: BLOOD.” Only in the movies! We were told these were pools of gore from where characters called Marcus and Pernilus had a big fight, shot earlier than morning. Just next door was the closed set of a scholar’s library where a simulated “blood orgy” would soon to take place. (And no, we would not be allowed to watch. We asked.)

We got a look at the makeup trailer, where cabinets were marked to denote contents like “Hair Goop,” “Slime,” and “Blood.” Pieces of latex skin were tacked to the walls, along with sections of scalp and hair. There were pictures taped on the mirrors to guide the makeup artists, and magazines and newspapers were strewn about to keep boredom at bay between the application of fur and fangs. We got to see the animatronic wolf head do some growling, then it was off to meet the talent.

That day on the set, slinky Kate looked as though she’d been dipped in bittersweet chocolate. Her hair was short, but full, loose and buoyant. She appeared simple, sleek and predator-like, but her frequent smiles and guffaws throughout the interview made her seem more like just one of the guys. To Kate’s right was the youthful-looking and animated Len, and further over was Scott, who fidgeted frequently and gnawed on the string-tie ends of his hoodie while avoiding eye-contact (perhaps he was still in wolf-mode).

The actors, director and we select members of the press were seated in the set that served as Alexander’s (Derek Jacobi) ship. The interior was decorated to reflect a microcosm of centuries — an eclectic mix of Victorian, baroque, and Nouveau. Stealthy and nondescript on the outside, it’s richly decorated inside with parquet floors, chandeliers, Victorian table lamps, wall sconces, candelabras, and wooden chairs carved with swans’ heads, arched necks, and tendrils of their feathers. We were allowed to get a quick pic of ourselves by the set piece of our choice (I liked the mermaid masthead), then it was time to find out more about Underworld: Evolution.

We were told that the sequel to Underworld will trace the beginnings of the ancient feud between the two tribes as Selene, the beautiful vampire heroine, and her lycan hybrid lover try to unlock the secrets of their bloodlines. Len admitted to me that he is not a fan of traditional vampires and werewolves — “This is where I go down in flames with the fans,” he chuckled — so he was excited about breaking some of the stereotypes in his movies. “The whole thing about just modernizing it; I wanted to see something different, so it was my attempt to approach it as a straightforward action film that happens to have these horror characters in it.”

There are padded bras, and then there are padded resumes: I found it amusing to read in the press notes that the costume designer for Underworld: Evolution, Wendy Partridge, actually listed one of her credits as “Dressing her dolls from the age of 7.” Beckinsale by turns praises and pans Selene’s attire. A few months later at the San Diego Comic-Con, she would say the costume was a bit of a pain because, “It takes 20 minutes to get the corset off and undo the zipper and take… I don’t want to give everyone a visual. When you’re shooting obviously they don’t want to give you a half-hour break, so you try not to drink too much water. But actually it’s a very comfortable costume, fortunately.” Then she laughed, “My husband liked it a lot.”

When Kate filmed the first Underworld, she had not yet wed the director. For the second film’s beginnings, she revealed, “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 was involved in the process in terms of hearing about the development very early on, which was a great treat.  Not that I had any kind of Yoko Ono sort of input, but…”

There was a lot of talk about Kate in black leather throughout the conference, but Scott upstaged her when he said of his look in Underworld: Evolution, “I’m naked a lot, which is good.” Kate backed him on that: “He provides most of the nipples in the movie.”

Scott’s wolf hybrid will be stronger visually in Underworld: Evolution. “I really enjoy the makeup process. It’s a little more intricate in this one, and the guys that I get to work with are amazing. They’re very nice and they are like artists. They work really hard. So that part of it’s really fun. 

“And in terms of just physically, I love that,” Scott said. “That you — it sounds kind of corny, but you can kind of disappear into the whole makeup thing, and I love that.”

The makeups will be more involved, and there will also be some medieval flashbacks, Len revealed. “It opens up. Underworld was very urban and kind of claustrophobic, and this film opens up. It’s on the run. It’s outdoors. It’s in the mountains. I didn’t want to do the same film over again [so Underworld: Evolution will take a different turn].”

Before we knew it, the press conference was over and the blood orgy sequence was about to begin. I later heard a little bit from production designer Patrick Tatopoulos about how that scene, er, went down… but that’s another story.

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Note: Underworld: Evolution opens nationwide on January 20, 2006. Visit the official website by clicking here.