Trivia / Underworld (2003)

• Actor-Inspired Element: According to Word of God, most of the actors in the initial stages assumed the film was going to be deliberately Campy. Kate Beckinsale coming on board however helped influence everyone to take the material extremely seriously.
• Actor-Shared Background: Singe is Austrian, and so is the actor, Erwin Leder.
• Awesome, Dear Boy:
  • Bill Nighy is quite vocal about agreeing to appear in Evolution and Rise of the Lycans because he had so much fun playing a Vampire.
  • Rhona Mitra loved playing a Vampire so much that she wore her fake teeth when she wasn't filming and kept them once they wrapped.
  • Tony Curran likewise for Evolution, so much so that his contract stipulated he would be able to keep his Vampire teeth.
• Cast the Runner-Up:
  • Wentworth Miller auditioned for Michael and ended up cast in the smaller role as his co-worker Adam.
  • Rhona Mitra auditioned for Selene in the first film and was then cast as Sonja for Rise of the Lycans based on their resemblance - as it's said that Selene reminded Viktor of Sonja.
• Completely Different Title: For the first movie:
  • Brazil: Night Angels
  • Estonia: Otherness
  • Finland: The Kingdom of Shadows
  • Lithuania and Russia: Another World
  • Romania: The World Beyond
  • Taiwan: Decisive Battle in Another World
  • Turkey: Land of Darkness
  • Ukraine: Other World
• Dawson Casting:
  • Selene was sired by Viktor when she was 19, and as an unaging Vampire, she should presumably look the same age. She's played by then-30-year-old Kate Beckinsale in the first movie. And Evolution was an Immediate Sequel but filmed three years later.
  • In the fourth movie Selene's hybrid daughter Eve was raised in a laboratory for the first 12 years of her life until they meet face to face. She's played by 18-year-old actress India Eisley.
• Development Hell: In 2014, Len Wiseman announced plans to expand the film series into a franchise with the possibility of spin-offs in addition to a television series. Development on a TV adaptation was officially announced in September 2017 with Wiseman as executive producer and with Sony Pictures Television, Screen Gems, Sketch Films, Lakeshore Entertainment, and 20th Century Television producing the show, but nothing has been heard of the project since.
• Dyeing for Your Art:
  • Kate Beckinsale lived on a diet of chicken and cabbage so she could fit into Selene's Spy Catsuit in the first film. She joked that bouts of pneumonia brought on by the subzero temperatures during filming helped keep her weight down as well.
  • Michael Sheen got into shape for Rise of the Lycans, where he would be appearing nude and shirtless considerably more than in the first film.
• Fake American:
  • The first two films have Northern Irish actor Shane Brolly attempting an American accent to play Kraven. Either that or he's just using some American pronunciations to make his voice clearer for non-European audiences - which sometimes happens with Irish actors.
  • Awakening features another Irish actor - Stephen Rea - doing an American accent as Dr Lane.
• Fake Nationality: A handful of Brits (Kate Beckinsale, Michael Sheen, Bill Nighy, Derek Jacobi, Rhona Mitra, Charles Dance, Theo James) and one Scot (Tony Curran), a British-Canadian (Scott Speedman), and an American who is maternally part Latina (India Eisley) all playing Hungarian characters or characters of direct Hungarian/East European descent. Averted with Zita Gorog, who is, indeed, Hungarian.
• Follow the Leader: The setting was similar enough to White Wolf's Old World of Darkness tabletop RPG that there was a legal fracas over it around the time of the first film's release. Otherwise, the film is generally thought of as The Matrix with vampires and werewolves. (With Romeo and Juliet in there too.)
• Looping Lines: Amelia's lines in the Evolution prologue had to be dubbed over because Zita Görög couldn't be heard on set.
• Missing Trailer Scene: A kiss between Michael and Selene was shown in the trailer but doesn't appear in the film. It does appear in the extended edition, though.
• Never Work with Children or Animals: In the first film, the attack dogs outside the mansion were actually very friendly and playful, so Len Wiseman had to use short shots of them running, with vicious barking dubbed over. Even if you look closely, they can be seen wagging their tails in shots.
• Not Screened for Critics: Awakening wasn't, anyway. Oddly, a subversion of the usual implications of this trope; Awakening is often considered at the high end of the series' quality scale.
• On-Set Injury: Scott Speedman got a concussion filming the wall scene in the first film when a bit of the prop wall hit him on the back of the head.
• The Other Darrin:
  • Jazmin Dammak plays Sonja in a flashback in the first film. Rhona Mitra plays her when she is a protagonist in the prequel. The 2017 4-K edition replaces the death scene with the one from Rise of the Lycans.
  • Scott Speedman plays Michael across the franchise. But for the fifth film, Trent Garrett replaces him.
• Playing Against Type: At the time of the first film, Kate Beckinsale had been mostly doing period pieces and playing lovely girls. She took the role to shake the image a little. The success of this and Van Helsing turned her into an Action Girl in the 2000s. 2016's Love & Friendship is a return to her period roots.
• Prop Recycling: One can notice several cases of lycans/werewolves losing only the top half of their head in "Rise of the Lycans". This is due to the special effects crew re-using the cosmetics used for William in "Evolution", who was gruesomely slain in the same way.
• Real-Life Relative:
  • Kate Beckinsale and Michael Sheen's daughter Lily Mo Sheen plays the young Selene in Evolution.
  • Kate Beckinsale's mother Judy Loe plays a vampire in Thomas' coven in Awakening.
• Reality Subtext:
  • It's said a couple of times in the first film that Selene reminded Viktor of his own deceased daughter. Rhona Mitra, who played said daughter in the prequel, was considered for the role of Selene and is often mixed up with Beckinsale.
  • In a far more disturbing way, Kevin Grevioux has stated that the Selene/Michael love story, with all that went into it, was based on his experiences of interracial relationships.
• Romance on the Set: Kate Beckinsale later married director Len Wiseman. She had been involved with Michael Sheen previously.
• Screwed by the Lawyers: Amy Lee recorded some vocals for the soundtrack but couldn't be used in the film thanks to licensing issues with Wind-up Records.
• Similarly Named Works: Should not be mistaken for the 1927 film of the same title.
• Star-Making Role: Kate Beckinsale had been on the rise with Pearl Harbor and Serendipity, but this really put her on the map.
• Wag the Director:
  • The script for the first film had a scene where Selene walks out of the shower nude, but Kate Beckinsale had decided she didn't want to do nudity and requested the scene be taken out.
  • The sex scene between Michael and Selene in Evolution ran longer, and was shot with full nudity from both actors on set. Kate Beckinsale then requested not to feature any shot that showed her fully nude. This is why there are lots of fades in and out.
  • Once again, Awakening originally had Selene attacked by a Lycan when she escapes from her cryotube, and she would be stalked by it while nude - though the storyboards of the scene indicate it would only be Toplessness from the Back and Shoulders-Up Nudity. Kate Beckinsale requested it be taken out, so Selene found her outfit immediately after emerging from the tube.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Halle Berry was considered for Selene.
  • David Bowie was meant to appear as a guest at the vampire feast. However, he couldn't make it due to scheduling conflicts. It would have been an Actor Allusion to his role in The Hunger.
  • Evolution originally ran two hours, and there was talk of releasing an Unrated version like the first film, but it never materialised.
  • In Rise of the Lycans, Kraven was going to have a major role, but he was replaced by Andreas Tanis.
  • In Awakening, David getting brought back to life was supposed to be his final scene, but Theo James impressed the filmmakers with his performance so much that David shows up at the final battle.
  • In Awakening, the company Antigen was originally called BioCom, Eve was originally called Nissa, Selene was imprisoned for fifteen years rather than twelve, and Sebastian's character didn't exist.
  • There have actually been three attempts at creating a crossover film between Underworld and three other properties:
    • I, Frankenstein would have had a post-credit scene featuring Selene from Underworld (2003) to tease a potential crossover between the two. There would also have been a few Easter eggs to the series as well, making I, Frankenstein a spin-off.
    • The creators of the series approached Marvel Studios about doing a crossover with the Blade franchise, with Wesley Snipes presumably reprising his role. Marvel declined, saying they wanted to leave the door open to do something with Blade on their own terms.
    • A crossover with the Resident Evil Film Series was also considered.
• Writing by the Seat of Your Pants: Awakening went into production without a completed script, as it had gone through so many rewrites for three years, with no one being able to decide on the tone - it initially began as a lighter version with a lot of Lampshade Hanging, but then evolved to be darker and more serious. The ending was also repeatedly changing, and special effects supervisor James McQuaide had no idea what to actually make the creatures look like until very late in post-production.
• Written by Cast Member: Kevin Grevioux (Raze) was also one of the writers.

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