‘Underworld’s Len Wiseman Answers Our Biggest Questions About Making the Film

When Underworld first premiered on September 19, 2003, it represented a beginning not just in terms of helping to reinvent the monster movie but also what it signified for those both in front of and behind the camera. For lead Kate Beckinsale, it was the first opportunity she’d have to kick ass as an action heroine, with her career mostly having consisted of period dramas and sweeping romantic films up until that point. For director Len Wiseman, who had only helmed ads for companies like Sony and music videos for artists like Megadeth, it was the opportunity to help bring the story he’d first helped to construct alongside Kevin Grievoux and Danny McBride into reality. At the time that Underworld went into production, no one could have envisioned the sort of cultural juggernaut it would go on to become, with four more movies released over a span of 13 years, as well as a short film and even a video game. There’s even been more recent talk of reviving the Underworld realm by means of a TV show, which Wiseman is set to develop — though when it’ll officially debut on the small screen has yet to be confirmed.

​ 20 years after Underworld’s premiere, we look back on the making of the cult classic supernatural movie with director Len Wiseman.