In a move that’s rarely a good sign, the next UNDERWORLD movie has been bumped from it’s pre-Halloween release date this October to January of 2017. Three little months; One big statement.
While it’s getting harder to refer to certain periods in the Hollywood release cycle as “dead zones,” since there have been recent successes found in movies that have opened in just about any month of the year, bumping a “vampires and werewolves” movie out of the Halloween lineup and into the doldrums of January doesn’t bode well for UNDERWORLD: BLOOD WARS. It calls to mind when I, FRANKENSTEIN came out in January of 2014. If you can’t confidently open a flick with this kind of subject matter during the traditionally “spooky monster movie season” of October, that doesn’t inspire much confidence in your movie.
This, despite the fact that Kate Becksinsale is set to return to the franchise she started back in 2003. UNDERWORLD: BLOODS WARS will not be directed by the man that started it all, Len Wiseman. This time around, it’ll be Anna Foerster, a longtime cinematographer and collaborator of Rolland Emmerich‘s. This will mark her feature directorial debut.
Beckinsale will be joined by Theo James (DIVERGENT) this time around.
UNDERWORLD: BLOOD WARS will now come out on January 6, 2017.
SOURCE: Variety