We really prefer the Kate Beckinsale of "Laurel Canyon," "The Last Days Of Disco" and "Snow Angels" to the Hollywood version, because if you focus on “Pearl Harbor” and all those “Underworld” films it’s easy to forget that the English actress can really act when she choose to. But people gotta eat and it’s not every day that there’s a female lead in action/fantasy franchise heading towards its fifth installment. so perhaps in that regards, we can make some kind of concession.
It’d been rumored in the past, but THR has confirmed that Beckinsale will return for the currently untitled and fifth installment of the “Underworld” series. Beckinsale mostly sat out of 2009’s "Underworld: Rise of the Lycans" though she did appear briefly. Once titled “Underworld: Next Generation," evidently that’s a hint at the plot that will pass the torch to apparently younger and hotter stars. So not coincidentally, Theo James, who appeared briefly in 2012’s “Underworld: Awakening,” will return.
Perhaps most notably, a female will direct one of these films for the first time ever: Anna Foerster, Roland Emmerich’s former right-hand woman, and a second unit helmer and director of photography on “The Day After Tomorrow” and “White House Down.” Apparently, someone is listening to the ACLU’s inquiry into gender bias in the field of directing. That’s great, now can we have women work on great films and forgo the notion that directing a franchise or tentpole is the be-all/end-all end game? (Don’t do it, Ava)
