Underworld Panel Report
Posted by bob in Films, News on July 26th, 2008
At Comic-Con International, director Patrick Tatopoulos introduced audiences to his Underworld: Rise of the Lycans cast: Rhona Mitra (Spartacus), Bill Nighy (Pirates of the Caribbean), and Kevin Grevious.
The event began with a rough cut of the trailer for the January 2009 release. Where there was rough animation, Tatopolous explained CGI effects would be inserted when completed.
After working on the first two films in the series, he had ideas of what should be done next which earned him a shot at directing the third film, making his debut. The prequel, he said was “bolder…Goes back to origin of slavery and the quest for freedom. The story between the two protagonists, Sonya and Lucian, it’s a great love story and that’s how it’s done.”
Mitra, joining the franchise as Sonya, explained, “I’m the daughter of Viktor, who’s played by Bill, and it really is fundamentally a love story between Michael Sheen and myself…a treacherous one I suppose for Viktor’s empire.”
A happy Nighy said, “I worked on a small vampire movie six years ago and it went straight to number 1 and look at us now.”
During the audience participation portion, Tatopolous said, “I think we pushed the characters a little more in this one…the conflict between father, daughter, and lover…it is seen from the eyes of the werewolf which makes it more violent. This time you are going to see armies of werewolves.”
“She is the daughter of Viktor,” Mitra elaborated. “There’s a huge amount in that and I had to take from previous work. She has this genuine love for a particular werewolf. She is a well trained warrior/horse woman…the son that Viktor never had. She is truly a warrior, with a masculine side. A very bold warrior, Joan of Arc kind….definitely a sense of Selene in there because you definitely want that connection.” Selene, of course, was played by Kate Beckinsale in the first two films and Mitra is a strong predecessor for the prequel.
“It’s retelling the story,” the director interjected, “Clearly from the beginning.” On turning from production designed to director, he noted, “I had to work with actors for the story and try to put aside the design of the movie.”
“Doomsday actually prepared me for the physical side of this,” Mitra added. “Doomsday was set 30 years into the future and this is more a period piece. Bill and Michael have their roles honed so there was a family that I walked into. It seemed the environment was already set up for me…so it was actually a pretty pleasant experience.”
Grevious said, “There were a lot of physical demands. My leg was physically injured for about a month” but he was able to fight through it.
With Mitra seated between actors who play vampires, there was a lot of teasing directed her way, especially when the director was asked if he had a preference: Vampires or Lycans?
“I would have to say Werewolves,” he answered directly. “Vampires look more like humans…Werewolves are more created from scratch so they’ve always been more interesting to me.”
