Kate Beckinsale swaps the corsets and bitingly polite drawing room behaviour of her critically-acclaimed role in Jane Austen adaptation Love and Friendship for jet black Lycra apparel and ferociously bloody battles as she resumes her role of the vampire Selene in Underworld: Blood Wars, the fifth instalment of the Underworld franchise.

This latest instalment finds Selene fending off brutal attacks from both the lycan clan and the Vampire faction that has betrayed her. Aided by her only allies, David (Theo James) and his father Thomas (Charles Dance), she must end the eternal war between lycan and Vampires, even if it means making the ultimate sacrifice.

Launched in 2003, the Underworld series chronicles Selene’s life. When we first met her, she worked as a Death Dealer on a quest of personal revenge, killing the lycans – werewolves – who allegedly slaughtered her family. The story continued in Underworld: Evolution (2006) further exploring the relationship between Selene and Michael Corvin, a human bitten first by Lucian, the leader of the lycan horde and later by Selene, thus becoming a lycan/vampire hybrid.

The third film, Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (released in 2009) is a prequel that went back to the origins of the vampire/lycan war. In the fourth film, Underworld: Awakening, humans have discovered the existence of the vampire and lycan clans and are trying to eradicate both species.

Pushes the Underworld mythology into exciting, new realms

The fifth film in the hugely successful action-horror series picks up the action where Awakening left off. The lycans have found a powerful new leader in Marius (Tobias Menzies), who has injected a fanatical sense of purpose and discipline into their previously ragtag ranks. Marius will stop at nothing to track down Selene in order to learn the whereabouts of her daughter Eve, a vampire-lycan hybrid.

Joined by David, Selene barely manages to elude her Lycan trackers until a truce negotiated by David’s father Thomas allows her to take refuge at the Eastern Coven, ruled by the ambitious Semira (Lara Pulver). But when Selene discovers that some of her Eastern protectors have traitorous agendas of their own, she and David are on the run again, and take refuge in the snow-covered lands of Var Dohr.  But their newfound sense of security is fleeting, for wherever Selene goes, the centuries-old war between Vampires and Lycans always follows.

The filmmakers promise that Blood Wars will push the Underworld mythology into exciting new realms, while drawing on the strengths that continue to thrill fans 14 years after the series’ inception. Director Anna Foerster hopes that audiences will be wowed not only by the action, but also by the emotional journey taken by Selene in this part of her adventures. As for Beckinsale, the actress expects the film to satisfy a key expectation for by showcasing Selene at her most warrior-like, stating that in between the fast and furious combat scenes, she feels that Underworld: Blood Wars offers a darkly thrilling cinematic vision of uncommon integrity.

“Underworld is original,” continues the actress, “and given the fact that it also has a female lead there are a lot of reasons I feel really privileged to be one of those few women who gets to do this kind of movie. I think audiences like to see women taking names and kicking ass but I also think at this point, there’s a historical legacy element to Underworld that people find appealing.”

The Return of Xander Cage

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The Return of Xander Cage, Class; 12: After coming out of self-imposed exile, daredevil operative Xander Cage (Vin Diesel) must race against time to recover a sinister weapon known as Pandora’s Box, a device that controls every military satellite in the world. Recruiting a new group of thrill-seeking cohorts, Xander finds himself entangled in a deadly conspiracy that points to collusion at the highest levels of government.