Underworld

The Underworld franchise has hung on with the best of them, but might finally mutate into that long-discussed TV series. Director Len Wiseman is allegedly moving forward with the TV project, which is said to be “definitely less comic book in its tone and character.”

Have you ever seen those movie ads on TV filled with gushing quotes from critics and thought to yourself, “I saw that movie; it was terrible. Where did they find these positive reviews?” If you have, you’re not alone — and you’re going to love ScreenCrush’s newest series, Critics Are Raving!, which balances the cinematic scales with trailers full of slightly more accurate (and slightly more negative) lines from reviews. Real critics. Real quotes. Really bad movies. That’s what’s Critics Are Raving! is all about.

You know that the werewolves versus vampires film Underworld has spawned three sequels, with a fourth, Underworld: Blood Wars, coming soon. But did you know that when director Len Wiseman was developing the first Underworld, he got too ambitious with his story? Eventually he realized that his screenplay was getting to dense for one film. Rather than condensing everything to fit into a single movie, he removed whole sections so that they could be used for future sequels. That’s just one of the blood-sucking facts featured in this new episode of You Think You Know Movies!

Like all movie franchises losing steam over time, the impressively enduring Underworld was bound for the TV treatment at some point or another. Producers did have in mind to craft a series back in 2012, to complement the fifth film due out later this year, and now Len Wiseman offers an update.

A couple of weeks ago we reported on a reboot of the 'Underworld' franchise, which delivered its fourth film -- 'Underworld: Awakening' -- in 2012. But it seems that news was only slightly premature as Lakeshore Entertainment is moving ahead with a sequel, not a reboot, and they're bringing back 'Awakening' star Theo James to reprise the role of vampire David for the fifth film.

Reboots have become an inevitable part of movies, and while we can pretty much understand rebooting franchises like 'The Mummy' or even giving Anne Rice's 'The Vampire Chronicles' another go, do we really need to reboot the 'Underworld' franchise so soon? Apparently we have our answer.