Fourth UNDERWORLD Movie Lands Swedish Directing Duo

The fourth installment of the popular Underworld series has had some difficulties getting off the ground. Lakeshore Entertainmet and Screen Gems have hired the Swedish team of Måns Mårlind and Björn Stein to direct.

Måns Mårlind and Björn Stein recently made their English-language movie debut with Shelter, which stars Julianne Moore and Jonathan Rhys Meyers, although it hasn't been released domestically as of yet. The two are just the latest products from Scandinavia to branch out into the U.S. market. They join the cast and director of the Millennium Trilogy (The Girl With A Dragon Tatto and the two succeeding films) to be linked to big budget Hollywood projects.

At one point Kate Beckinsale was rumored to be pulling away from the movie entirely due to scheduling conflicts. It was been confirmed back in September that she will indeed return as Selene for the next Underworld movie.

J. Michael Straczynski will be rewriting the original script from John Hlavin (Trust Me, The Shield). Straczynski has a very long resume to his credit as writer and producer in television (creator of Babylon 5), movies (The Changeling) and print, most notably comic books. From 2001 to 2007, he was the writer for the long-running Marvel comic book series The Amazing Spider-Man and is now at DC working on both Superman and Wonder Woman currently.

Len Wiseman, who directed the first two Underworld films, will be a producer. Production is currently set to begin in March next year in Vancouver. The movie has had many release dates that keep getting pushed further back. No word on if the current release date of January 20, 2012 will still hold.