4th Underworld Film Not a Prequel; Writer Named

I half expected, half hoped that the third Underworld film would be the last. Not that it was awful, but without Kate Beckinsale it felt like the story had run it's course. Well, apparently others feel it's still got some juice because John Hlavin(The Shield) has been tapped to pen the 4th installment. No director has been named as of yet. Nor has any casting information been released. Kate Beckinsale, Scott Speedman, not even Rhona Mitra are attached to the film as of yet.

Hlavin himself gave some details on the plan for the film...

"but I can tell you it's not a prequel." He added, "It will satisfy old fans and excite new audiences, meaning that we don't want to redo the first three movies, so steps are being taken to honor what fans have loved but at the same time introduce fresh elements."

Uh oh. To me, that sounds like it's going to be one of those off-shoot films that will focus on some obscure battle taking place totally separate from the main cast we've grown to like. I have my doubts that anyone from the previous movies will be making a return, with the possible exception of Bill Nighy who can't say no to anything. I would say that that this has the stench of direct-to-DVD on it, but the franchise has been a cash cow ever since it's inception, so I doubt they'd give that up just yet.

THR has more on the story here.