Underworld Rise of the Lycans (2009)

My name is Len Wiseman. I'm the producer. And I had something to do with the other two as well, I think.

My name is Patrick Tatopoulos. I'm the director, this one. And I have something to do with the two other ones as well. Hi, Richard Wright, producer of all three. Gary Lucchesi, producer of all three. James McQuaide, VFX supervisor of all three... ...and executive producer of all three. See, we don't stray far from the family. We like to keep this in-house. - That's right. This is the first time you're gonna see a Sketch Films logo. I just want you to know that. - Won't be the last. My family and friends all cheered in the premiere at that. Viktor increased his army, creating... So, Patrick, do you remember the original concept... ... for how far we were gonna start, how far back we were gonna go? We were gonna go to the beginning of the story. I mean, the plague, with Corvinus and everything. But the thing is, we had a plan to actually shoot... ...some little elements of that and get to the little sequence at the beginning. So we'd see actually part of the plague... ...part of the first bite, you know, William. And, yeah, ultimately, we had to concentrate this... ...on something a little tighter, and that's what we got. You know, just ran out of money. And you know, when I first saw that baby right there... ...when I saw the dailies, I thought it was animatronic. When it was next to the werewolf. - It is. Actually, we were watching and... Real werewolf, though. - Yeah. I thought there's no way they're putting a real baby... ...next to a terrifying creature. What price stardom?

The fights are really nice in this picture, Patrick. They're really on par with the other two, certainly. Allan Poppleton was our New Zealand stunt coordinator. He did a fantastic job. - He did a great job, yeah. So, what you're seeing here is actually the set... ... you're gonna see later in the movie, an early stage of the castle. We tried to minimalise the dressing so it felt a little different. But it's basically the same space that you'll see later. And this was the first day of shooting. - Yeah, the balcony part. Yup. The big reveal. Wanna tell you a story about the castle. The castle is such a gigantic structure. Of course, there was no way to build this. We ended up building the, what you would call, the courtyard of the castle. How many feet tall, Richard? - About 20 feet. Twenty-five, 30 feet, yeah. Which was a little challenging for the lighting... ...because we were there on top of the set. When we started, it was difficult for CGI guys to kind of extend that. Yeah, it was terrible for Sound too. Every time it rained, we'd stop shooting. The train outside, the train station? - Yeah, the train... Note to self: Do not build set next to railroad tracks next time. We have a few transformation... ...but this one actually is not a transformation. It looks like one, but everything is practical. There's nothing mechanical or anything. I love it. It's a little more American Werewolf in London approach. There is no CG help whatsoever, though. Unlike the others.... This took a while to get right, just this whole prelude... ...and Kate's voiceover, and getting people caught up. There is a lot of history, and to decide, you know, where exactly to start... ...and how much to prep it with. Hopefully, we covered everything we needed to. It looks like we moved really quickly through. I wish we had a little bit more space, a little bit more in the... Yeah. - There's so much story to....

Here a glimpse of the beautiful mosaic. God, those things were gorgeous, and we hardly saw them. Dan Hennah's set. - Yeah.

So Dan was the art director on Lord of the Rings... ...and I met through a friend of mine, Gino Acevedo, the makeup artist. And we met and.... Since we already had a sense of what I wanted to see as a castle... ...came with some drawings at the beginning. Dan was perfect for that. Just took the drawing. As an art director, just became clearly someone that expanded the vision. But he's textured the style, you cannot recognise, I mean... Yeah, we were really lucky to get him. He was actually working on a different show when we got to New Zealand. And we thought maybe we wouldn't get him. But that other show had money problems... ...and shut down the production. And we were very lucky that he was able to step right into Underworld. Now, this was a scene that, at least, my recollection... ...when we originally sort of storyboarded it... ...wWe had a lot of werewolves in it, and then we couldn't afford them. So we went back and we begged Clint Culpepper... ...to give us about a hundred more werewolves. And he did. - Which he did. We also had to build this canyon right here. And I do think it makes a difference of just... Before, we were talking about doing a version... ... Which is just all within the trees. And, you know, Patrick, you and I talked a lot about... I liked the idea of you going from... There's a separation. You got the forest, and then this canyon, that then leads into... Leads into the meadow, yeah. Into the castle. Yup, and this castle, obviously, is a location that doesn't exist. So basically... - Neither do the rocks. What we had, it's basically like a golf course-looking... There was no rocks, nothing. It's very flat, very boring. And there was a lot of work to be done later on post and, you know.... The trees and the grass are basically all that were there. Yeah. The big crossbows. We only had one working crossbow, correct? Yes. - We still have it in storage too. We should take it out and play with it. We had a lot of, like, one thing working out of everything. We had one werewolf head mechanical. And we had to make it, you know, out of that stuff. So this wall behind. This is again basically the outside of the set. That set already, basically. - Yup. The whole courtyard and the little bit of the outside was built. We tried that shot right there, where the werewolf comes in. We tried that practically. And it just looked like.... Just dragging in a muppet. - A piece of rubber. Now, this is Rhona. - She is.

It was interesting with Rhona because she had to create... ...a new character, you know, somebody... It's a different time. It's a much more rougher time. I mean, I think the warrior that she created... ...IS, In a sense, quite different from the Kate character. I think she did a fantastic job there. And I think she fits the tone of the movie very well. I was very happy. I mean, she looks great. And she has a very special quality of.... What I like best about Rhona is also the looks, how she looks... ...and tell a love story just by the looks on them. You'll see that through the movie, little moments like this, she really.... Beyond being a great... She works great with swords and things. Look at the shape Michael's in. It's incredible. This was-- He started.... He came off of Frost/Nixon I think in the end of October... ...and started shooting this in January... ...and had three months to go through incredibly intense physical training... ...to get into the shape that he's in in this movie. It was a Startling transformation that he was able to do to himself. It's good to be a Lycan. I'd like to be one. Yeah. That helps. Now, this is one of the great Dan Hennah sets. I remember Len and I came from California... ...in, what was it, for the first day of shooting... ...and we walked through the sets. And not only were they beautiful to look at... ...but the flooring was all corrugated. It looked like natural cement. And apparently, Dan had some sort of formula... ...where he could lay down these floors. And they made them look absolutely... They brought in a cement mixer and dumped it on the floor. And then there's this team of guys with forms and moulds... ... sort of going along with the cement mixer. So the entire floor is actually made... ...of two or three inches of actual concrete. It makes a huge difference. On the first film, we would've liked to, in the crypt, do that. Just didn't have the money for it. It was, you know, any way that you can possibly do it... . like a faux paint job. It just doesn't pick up the light. It doesn't work. The texture, yeah. - Here's a transformation. This was late in the game. This is Michael's suggestion or no? Am I wrong about that? - This was a scene, he was really... We actually tried to cut it. And he was so adamant that we had to shoot it. This one here. This turned out really well. Who did this? A company called Intelligent Creatures. From Toronto. - This one came out really good, yeah.

This was part of what we described as our Spartacus sequence... ...where we wanted to have the slaves working on the rocks. Yep. This again, Dan Hennah and his.... It's an astonishing scale that we were able to get for the limited budget. Look at Larry. Larry's got the cruellest villain face. Ever. - Yeah, he was. I mean, Larry Rew's fantastic. He's just great, great expressions. And he was a local New Zealand actor, right? We found good actors in New Zealand. He was from there, and when we started to consider him... ... he actually decided to move to England. He came back from... What's the deal? - Yeah, that was weird. You will not always be his favourite, and when you fall... ...I will be there. I gotta say about Michael, really, because I was talking about Rhona. We just went through this. Michael... The first thing when I did the movie, I thought this is a bit of a fun little ride. He took the character and the part so... You guys saw that. He was so into it. And he was a real, real strong.... He was very big part of actually the way the character developed. He was very professional. Completely professional. And brings so much to the-- Yeah. I think you have to, you know, for these, it's.... You know, It's a different kind of film, but, you know, people that are... You know, If you were really into this kind of genre... ... you'd take it as seriously as anything else. And he is, actually. When you ask him what he likes, he likes Stephen King. He like that kind of stuff. - Oh, yeah, oh, yeah. These two actors are actually very well-known New Zealand actors... ...normally doing theatre and considerably more high-brow stuff. But they had a great time playing these roles. Orsova and Coloman. - Yeah, he's great. I remember seeing him early on... - David Ashton, yeah. David Ashton, yeah. Yeah, when we were going through all the casting and everything. He popped out. He was great. They're very solid actors. They're fantastic people. We're very lucky to have them onboard. And Elizabeth as well. - Yeah. This is so different from the type of roles... ... that she normally gets to play. They had such a good time, though. And who was the--? I Know we had a couple of different... . like, arrangements for their costume design. Who was doing for this stuff here? Who did these--? - Because I know that... Beanie did all the costume except for Rhona. Except for Rhona, right. Wendy Partridge did Rhona. Jane Holland, New Zealand? - Yeah. She did absolutely every costume in the movie. The only thing she didn't touch was basically Rhona's wardrobe. I remember when I showed up on set telling Gary that, you know... ...producing this one rather than, you know, directing... ... that I was jealous of the detail that you guys got out of it. It's like, in the costumes, in the sets, everything. I wanted to make you jealous about some things. I heard that, and you did, and you did. I'm already terribly, over the accent itself.

So everything in this castle is basically... ... lmagine, carved into the rocks. Every room, every-- Imagine... There's, like, channels underground, a sewer system. Basically, everything... I didn't want a castle that look like a mediaeval castle... ...1n the middle of the countryside, but more like Petra. You know, those building carved in rock. That's why it feels very claustrophobic... . like, you know, every other Underworld. And there's not many windows. It's always quite dark. Which actually became a challenge in a period movie... ...because you light everything with candles or torches. And after a while, it sort of like, you know... ...becomes a bit of an issue, because it looks the same. SO we came up with a couple of ideas... . like green windows to protect against the sun... ...and things like that, which gave us a different tone. This is one location that changed a lot during the preparation of the film. We're trying to figure out... We were up against it with a budget, trying to figure out... ... how to have them get away from the castle... ...to have this tryst. Then Patrick came up with this idea of the ruined guardhouse. The set piece is actually quite small, with set extensions. And it works. It's just gorgeous, works really well. That's one that I... A set that I really love from Dan as well is Sonja's room. Because it feels still cold, but there's a bit more... ...of a feminine texture in there, which I think is great.

Now we're getting started on the sex scene, and.... Was it early on in the schedule or no? This is pretty late. - It was toward the end, actually. We felt like it was better for the both of them... ... to, you know. You take a chance some time. To get to know each other a little bit more, you know, to be.... Now, this scene, I gotta say, I have to say. I wanted to do more with it. You know, we had to kind of feel the moment... You got your shot in there at the end. You and I were like: But it was an idea, I mean, to have them... ...carrying on making love on the side of the rock face. On the rock face. I never completely understood where Patrick was going. It's a French thing, though. - Yeah, that's right. That's French lovemaking right there. - That's right.

It's always uncomfortable doing a love scene. So doing your first one... You try to make everybody at ease. And if you give too much, then people start... Were you naked? - I was, of course. But of course. We're all naked on set. I gotta say, Michael is very comfortable. He had no problem, clearly.

It's like nothing, but look at the difference... ...of the colour scheme on that shot. I really like, there's the vampire and him. I thought those two... Just, I love the paleness and the darkness on him.

Leave? We did-- This... Tried to match in as well as it could. This was all ADR in the end, right? - Yeah. It's just these wind machines and everything, wasn't it? We had to keep them warm enough because there was wind machine. Again, the space we had was great for its size... ...but the sound was not... We had a lot of work to do on post. Tilt-up concrete warehouses that had been built... ...to house sheep feed, those pellets that sheep eat. And they were definitely not sound stages. Also, there's little ADR add-ons in here.... I wish we could've gone in a little bit more detail... ...about the shackles around their neck that... Right, yeah. - The moon shackles. Yeah, that he actually said that if I can remove this shackle... ...and they've got the silver spikes in them that... I wish we had. We wanted to. I mean, we'd talked about it and had a scene for it. That you see, if they tried to transform, those silver spikes... What happens, of course, their neck grows, they get larger... ...and it immediately digs into their skin... ...and stops them from transforming. We never really had a chance to bring that across in the dialogue.

That's one of my favourite shots of the film right there. Really beautiful. Steven Mackintosh was in the second film as well... ...playing Tannis, so he reprised his role. I Keep saying I wish Steven had more, more... There was more of him in the movie. Such an incre... I mean, really, I felt that every day. I totally agree with you. I was saying the same thing on Underworld 2. That I didn't have him in enough. And we had a pretty long scene with him on 2, remember? The scene was like.... - Yeah, I Know he's got... And a lot of people don't recognise he's the same character... ...because his look was so different. - True. That's a shot that came at the end, last minute. It would be nice to see the presence of the wolf... ...outside the castle so it's not always disconnected. Thank you, Clint, for coughing up that extra dough for us. And this is one shot, I gotta say, you know... ...when you have, like, a big bad-ass day, and you can't... You just-- One camera and you ba... You know, this is really.... When you feel a little cornered sometime... ...and you're like, "Okay, guys, we have to shoot this." You know, I remember this. This one, and then the scene against the fire... ... Where Rhona's talking to Bill. At the end, there's no time... ...had to kind of stack them up soap-opera style. And actually, it's great. - It worked very well. That scene is great. I love how she never really turns around to see him. That's cool. - Sometimes that works out. I gotta say that people are gonna think this is a set a la Sleepy Hollow thing. This is actually a real forest there. And really weird. The trees look like they're dead. All the foliage is really high in the tree. And we're, like, 200 feet from the water, from the sea. Yeah, there's people surfing 200 yards from... Incredible-looking forest. - Where we're shooting. And that was one of our key locations. All the forest scenes were shot there. I really love that place. It was very cool. lt was strange when we walked in there for the first time, remember? We all sort of looked at each other like, "Whoa, do we have to shoot here?" We're walking there with Richard. And we're looking at the trees, and then we started losing our minds. And we Say, "What if we use the tree?" We will make little miniature... We shoot them green screen people. Horses running through the trees, but the trees would be 50... Giant trees. Because that forest got a weird quality... ... almost like a gigantic forest. lf you're shooting miniature stuff in there.... We were losing-- We were a little... Well, it got to the point about New Zealand too... ...because when we first got the script... ...We Initially thought we were gonna shoot the movie in Romania. And then the idea of shooting a winter film in Romania... ...1S a little bit... - Exteriors. Exteriors was a little daunting. And one day, I had actually seen the making of The Lord of the Rings... ...and I said to Richard, "What about New Zealand?" And he kind of looked at me. "New Zealand?" And then we met this woman, Beth DePatie, who had worked... ... for us before, and she worked on Narnia. She came back with a budget that showed that New Zealand... ...WaS as inexpensive, if not less expensive... ...than Romania. And everybody wanted to go to New Zealand. We were on the plane two days later. I remember calling up Len. I said, "Is there a chance that--?" "What are the chances of you getting to Romania?" A pause. "But what are the chances of you going to New Zealand?" It was a big yes, So.... Have you been to Romania? - Yeah, I have. There was always the Romania discussion... ...and we've gone out there, and.... For the first one, we were almost set on shooting there, weren't we? We were very close, yeah. - Well, there were castles, and.... Transylvania and that. Hungary was a little bit more expensive. You were in love with how Budapest looked that we said the hell with it. We'll figure out some other way to save that money. We shot in Hungary instead. I was the only one that really wanted Romania in the first place on this... ...because I was worried New Zealand would be too pretty for us. I remember... - That was very... I was thinking... - Too green. Yeah, it's too green, it's too beautiful, and then we went there in the forest. But the other key thing was that we had to shoot... .1n January, February and March. And in Romania, that would have been minus 20 degrees. And we thought at that time we'd have to build the castle outside. So 40 pages of the script would have been outside... ...at night, in Romania, freezing to death.

They'll be massacred.

So this is work... I mean, we had two companies doing the CGI werewolf on this movie. I need to mention that. The very first section of the movie, Sonja attacked... ...coming to the castle we saw before and this... ...was done by a French company called Duboi. And later on, the other part of the movie... ... you'll see werewolves again, the same one... ...done by another company called Luma. I need to say something about those guys. When the French started to do the first werewolf... ... they had a way of making those guys look quite elegant and sexy... ...but they were lacking a bit of weight, we felt. So we talked about that. The opposite came from Luma, giving them a lot of weight... ...but they were a little bit too brutal in some ways. And that's a typical example. When we met those guys, we had them looking at each other's work. And at the end, it sort of, like, you know, got better by looking at... Each other's work. - Yeah, covertly, and that really helped. There's a lot of practical wolf there as well, like, this is practical stuff. But there are probably 35 CG wolves in this sequence. Yeah. How many CG shots were in the whole movie, James? About 400. - Four hundred. But not just for the wolf. Everything. There's, like, 80 CG wolves. But this scene in particular, it's mixed from shot to shot to shot. And you really have to look closely now to tell the difference. Yeah, - Even in here, these three, four shots... ... they're back and forth, back and forth. That's a suit. And.... That one's CG. - Yeah. Sonja! Remember it took us, like, three different days to shoot that tunnel? That was such a nuisance, that thing. It was incredible. We really tried to prep ourselves, like great storyboard laid out. It was still a difficult scene to shoot. We're also talking over the appearance of Kevin Grevioux, and.... Fire. Who was obviously Raze in the first film... ...and, you know, a big part of the creation... ...of the writing of the first script. That's a Luma transformation. It was a great transformation. - It looks really good. And Luma's the only visual effects company that has worked in all three. That right? - True. How many visual effects companies ended up on Underworld? Is that 11, was it? Ten. - Ten. There's tons of them. This is one of the latest... - This is Kevin, guys. additions in the script of having Michael... ... actually do this roar that has the others back off. And it kind of.... It really opened up his character, and.... Yeah. Michael was really specific at the beginning. He asked if he could actually be doing the entire transformation... ...and being shot all the way to the end to bring his language. And I thought that helped everybody. CGI looking at him. He basically kept screaming almost like at the end of the transformation. And then he was replaced, but they got a good guideline. I wished we could have done a transformation back-to-human shot. Am I not master of this house? There's another shackle add-on right here. you are forbidden to remove your shackle. lt was added in later. you break my law after I gave you your life. Your days of plush living are over... We were lucky to have Bill Nighy on this movie. I mean, he's just a wonderful actor. He really is. He's fanta... And just a really, really great guy as well. He's always fun to work with and have on set. You couldn't have an Underworld without Viktor, Bill? I doubt it. - God, I don't know. It's tough because, like, you know, you kill these people off. And, you know, we'd always intended to do, you know, kind of a... In hopes and fantasize about doing a trilogy... ...which we've been able to be very lucky to do so now. And then you kill a lot of these great actors off. And, you know, I don't know. Don't know if it would feel the same without him. I mean, he wasn't... You know, it was great that we had him start in Underworld 2. You know, he wasn't in Underworld 2 for the beginning part of the film. Okay, that of... This is the best shot in the movie to see the size of the set. So now, we're in CG world. And we're entering now the practical set. So that's actually the set that Dan Hennah built for us... ...the last 20 feet of that, if you may. And there was this wall across to try to separate.... ...on the different flavours on both side. Yeah, this is one of my favourite shots. When I saw this, I was just... - Gorgeous. That's beautiful. - Thrilled. It looks fantastic. I was worried about that too. When we showed up... ...the sets were amazing, but they weren't very tall... in terms of how grand the space is. You know, to actually capture that on film... ... you're gonna have to see that it stops pretty short. Shoot off the edge. - And so it just meant... Every time you see that, it's a visual effects shot. It was basically the choice for that. Either wide or a little taller. But I felt the wise choice was to be wider for what we... The only other way to build it taller would've been to build it outside. Which would have been a disaster.

I

This scene's been compared to the... - You know, that... I'm sorry, that insert helps so much, because the first cut... ...I didn't see that. And just showing those blades, I've noticed now in a few... Just in the theatre, when people are watching, and just by seeing that... ... you'd have few ooh's and aah's on a... Makes a big difference in whether you think he's just being whipped. Or you see those... Just that quick insert. And you know what's happening after that. And we shot that at the end. By the way, we shot the, for we have... You know, If anybody is interested, we shot the movie with a Genesis. And all the reshoot was done with the Red camera.

What? - Stop this. He is one of our protectors. - They are but beasts. This could stir up... It's a first movie and thing. This is to me probably my favourite scene of the movie. I like from the moment you see him. That dialogue with Bill, I was very happy with how this thing came out. I mean, you kKnow.... This one felt good. Bill's fantastic, and now again. And he looks like a vampire. - That's right. Did you actually count back and see if there was 21 lashes before then? Oh, yeah. - There was? Oh, yeah, yeah, of course, yeah. - That's another big set. This is the dungeon. And we miss Kevin before on the wolf. I don't think we talked too much. So Kevin's back. Kevin Grevioux, you know, Raze. And nobody believes that that's his real voice. I'll actually go on record saying it is his voice. We spent a lot of time with Kevin, and it's.... It's always been his real voice. That's his voice. He's not faking. - It's even more insane in real life. In the movie, you think... But when you hear him in real life, you just don't believe it first. was most touching. So this is the scene we were talking about earlier where.... And I remember, Patrick, you were kind of stressed of that, you know... ...the fact that all the blocking... The blocking initially had them walking around rooms... ...and turning to hide their reactions. And it just, we were running out of time... ...and had to stack them up just right next to each other. Actually, like you said, I think this one worked okay. The other, I think, would be a problem for them. Bill and....

Certain disconnection between her being warmer with the fire... ...and Bill being super-cold. I thought it was... Also tried to do that. The fire light and everything... ...ends up being one of the coolest shots on Rhona too. Yes, I think so too. We're actually shooting through a gas fire too... So the rippling in the air is actually practical. It looks great, though. Janosh and the other nobles... Watch Viktor's eye right here. Watch Bill when he leaves.

I love it. Mr. Spock moment. I

You know those lenses they're wearing? You have no idea how many shot we have to adjust them later. They keep sliding. Bill actually, he prefers to keep his eyes in at all times, right? I remember talking to him on the first one. It is a little bit strange that he's our only vampire... ... that keeps his eyes glowing the whole time. I think it's... He really loves it, and it helps him with, you know, the... I guess Viktor's just, you know, a little more enraged... .at all times than anybody else. There's only one day when we shot... One or a couple of days? We shot the rain stuff? The fight with Sonja. That was really hard, remember, Richard? The lens just kept falling out. - Because they keep... I mean, the teeth would fall out. It was crazy. He had-- There was something... There was something wrong with Bill's teeth too. His teeth never stayed in. They were always falling out. Nobody's teeth really stay in. No. - There was always the teeth problem. There's probably 50 takes in the movie where Bill's tooth falls out. You had to shoot another take. Just to give credit for the guys. Those teeth are so thin. They're like little veneers so they don't deform the mouth. They, of course, have very little place to be supported. So, yeah, it becomes a bit of a headache, but... I always thought this was a very, very cool scene. You know, it's interesting how an actor like Michael Sheen... ...can absolutely command the screen still being very, very quiet. And he really did... Remember the pain it was to shoot in that dungeon? Yeah, it was tiny. - We basically built a real dungeon. And the walls are covered with concrete and stucco... ...S0 you couldn't take... - It was miserable in there, wasn't it? Oh, God, it was just hot. - It was small. lt was tiny and couldn't turn around. We'd also built it so there was only one or two ways out. So it really was a dungeon. - Yeah. It's a difficult situation where you're limited by what the scene Is. They're across the door. We shot first through the... And then we just, you know, you would just see them through the little... Little scene of eyeballs. - Exactly. It became really unbearable, and we decided, Richard... ...to give this a little time to re-shoot an exterior, because... It was impossible. - Yeah. It is claustrophobic. But it became too much, you saw nothing. It was just like, well... Plus, it's a big scene. It's where they're hatching the plot. The conspiracy. And you were so distracted by the fact that all you saw were eyes... ... through a hole in a grate. Now these were pick-up shots, these were later, right? All of these. This is practical, in front of a green screen. Kind of like the carriage, and this, you know, the background is CGI. And that's, again, Intelligent Creature, James? Yep. - Correct. That's right.

Bring them in. SO, like, the nobles are coming now. When we just started to play with the movie... ...and the look, the nobles should be the one that... The only touches of colour in the movie. Because we're in the Underworld world... ...Which is very blue and brown. We're trying to bring colour from those guys. They're the only few people that should be looking... ...also like the actual period of time, which is 12th century. And, you know, the vampire world is a little tweaked. It goes, you know, it feels futuristic and past. Those guys should feel like the period. That's more or less, the way the people look at the time. So it was fun to do something, in some ways, truly period-y. This is our biggest set, the great hall set. When you see the wide shot, the entire thing is set. We built the entire thing. There's no set extensions at all. lt was a huge set, but it was one of the first things that we shot in the film. And being in that big cathedral-type space... ...Was great for everybody, because it really got everybody... ...1nto the spirit of the film, and really feeling positive... ...about the production design and how great everything was gonna look. Tim Raby, I mean, when we did the casting... -... Tim Raby is playing the, you know... - Janosh. I just love the way... Yeah, he was fun. He's good actor. He's fantastic actor. I also love the way you did when Viktor actually rushes over... ...I love that you stayed in Coloman. Yeah. - You just see that... It's almost like, watch this look, and it looks like: "Oh, God, here we go." And he just, I guess, supernatural freak of motion... ...and Coloman's look was like, "Oh, shit." It's coming now, and now. Remember this, though? The first time we shot this stunt, they forgot to turn the camera on. The guy had to go back and do it over again. "What do you mean the camera was not on?" It's, like, one of those classic movie moments. So I always felt we went slightly overboard on the impact. But, you know, it's an old castle. You could believe the rock Is bit... - I love that shot. Oh, yeah, this one. It was littlke much, but... Viktor giving benediction to the other nobles.

There's Brian Steele. - Yeah. Yes, Brian. - Another Underworld veteran. Well, Brian is the man who's been in so many suits in town. I mean, like stuff from, like, Hellboy, to everything. And he's been with us... Basically, you never really see Brian's face. Usually he's inside the werewolf suit. Well, he was the famous William Werewolf. And he was the werewolf for us. Here, again, he's just great, and it was cool for him. He finally just had a chance to be strangled against the.... He was great. He really got into it. - Yeah. their entertainment, their playthings? Their pets. Cowering beneath.... This right here, this was.... I remember being in New Zealand. We got the.... Had all the dailies come in at this point. And once we got to this speech, I remember telling, you Know... ...going to you and talking to Gary. This is how we promote this movie. It's this guy's speech. It's Lucian's speech to everybody. And you really got a sense of what kind... ...of movie it was from this point on, I think... ...1n terms of seeing him address all these guys... ...and it just kind of fit with the, you know, Rise of the Lycans. And our fortunes turned a lot after you cut together that promo... ...and showed it to everybody. And suddenly, everybody was, "Oh, my God. This film is gonna be so much more than we expected." And at that point, suddenly, they gave us more money... That was actually the single big trailer moment. Almost more than the werewolf thing. That became the trademark, I think, you know. Yeah, and talking about Clint Culpepper as well... ...ocreen Gems, that, you know, I'd cut together this kind of montage... It's like basically a little trailer, because we needed... God, we needed, you know, couple... We ended up... - Million more. A couple of 10? - Yeah, a lot more. Exactly. - A lot more than that. I don't remember. At the time, I just remember going... Knowing that I had, you know, we.... "Hey, isn't this nice and pretty, and we need 2 million more?" And then he knows why I'm there. He knows exactly why I'm going to his office. I go in there to see Clint. And he's like, "Okay, well, you need more money." And, you know, obviously, "Show me what you got." And he was just the coolest about it. And a genuine, like, fan of it. When I showed it to him, he's kind of jumping and going: "Oh, my God, I love it. Holy shit, it's awesome." And so he totally backed us up with all that. And we got what we needed. - Thank God. He's been really supportive. - Very supportive. I mean, Clint, you know... I think the passion he has for that material, I think it was really real.

Now, there's a very Underworld prop. Yeah, it shows up all over the place. - You know, this was something that.... There's many things to.... Actually, that I can actually address now. I'm hearing questions that are asked, and I don't really get to answer them. The.... The Sonja back-story... You know, Sonja was always the one that.... Well, Selene reminded Viktor of his daughter... ...and there was a similarity between them. And when we actually shot the death scene of Sonja... ... ln Underworld 1, we actually... People talking about, "Why is she blond?" "And now you've got Rhona Mitra, and she's got dark hair." "And couldn't the filmmakers just go back and watch the first film?" Of course we watched the first film. And it really just came down to a budget in the first one. And, Richard, you'd probably remember... ... that we literally, we had... We were given the okay to actually shoot that. One day. We got one day. - That back-story. One day, and no money, and one actress... ... that even remotely had an interesting look, but had blond hair. And at the time... Then we had, like, a day to find her too. And it bugged me at the time, I'm thinking: But it's supposed to be Sonja who reminded... Viktor. - Viktor. And so she has to have dark hair. And we asked the actress to dye her hair... ...she wanted more money. It was one of those things that you just think... And it just couldn't happen. We literally did not have the money to pay to dye her hair... ...and then have it coloured back again. And we didn't have time to build a wig that looked appropriate in one day. And so there we have it. And Sonja was more of a blond girl. And so that's.... I would actually now love to, in some version... ...take the death scene that we have now... ...and put it in Underworld 7. Funny you should say that. That's what I was doing all day today. - What do you mean? Recutting the genetic memories using footage from 3... For fun? - Yeah. For who? For a future... Exactly, just to have it in the bank. Cool. - Yeah. You know, there's a.... You know, I'd love to see this whole series all put together... ...because I think, unlike a lot of series... ... this actually does tie in fairly well, hopefully, to the other films... ...and actually arrange them in a proper timeline. With this one first. - Yeah, it really does. And therefore, kind of swap out... And also, just money-wise, we didn't have the ability... ...to do the kind of set and setting for her death scene in the original one. We had to revamp the crypt, which I never think really sold... There was an interesting thing when I watched it again... ...While we're doing this one, that there was actually Lycans... ...people standing around the room. Yeah. It was interesting. Actually, when you first talked to me about directing this one... ...I was thinking she was gonna be blond... ...because of that, because you had established that. I was not thinking. When I was starting to think about casting... ... I was like, "Oh, so she's Eastern European blond. That's what she's gonna be." - No, not at all. I was actually.... I was amazed at how many people actually, for a scene... ...that shows up for, you know, maybe 30 seconds... ...1n the original film, how much everybody really remembered... ... that she had, you know, blond hair, and.... I guess of course they're going to. For me, it's just... To do an entire film where the whole basis... ...of Viktor saving Selene is that there was such a parallel... ...to his own daughter that she had to be dark hair.

Well, one of the things that makes Underworld so unique... ...1S that it's based on original material. There haven't been that many movies in the last few years... ...that have had two sequels to the original product... ... that weren't based on books or adapted material, you know. This isn't The Lord of the Rings. This is something that Len and, you know, Kevin Grevioux... ... sort of created out of their brains. And Len always had this great desire to make three movies... ...and son of a gun, we were able to. I love this wall. Today, I still get people, you know, say, "I don't get it. How did you go from being a prop guy doing, like, set dressing... ...to somebody handing you a comic book to direct? Like giving you the rights to a book, or giving you rights to a comic book." And I think a lot people just assume that it is developed... ...Off of a comic book already and it was already existing material. I think in fact the only reason I was able to direct it... ...1S because I had written it. Otherwise, I would not be here at all. - Yeah. lt would've gone to some other guy. We all had a good feeling about Len Wiseman when we first met him. I don't know what it was. I think it had a lot to do with your personality and your character. Well, being able to draw certainly helps too. You could show people what it is you wanna do. You'll find out soon enough.

Yes. Why?

In the original draft for this thing, the script... ...Kevin wasn't been bitten in this scene. That's right. Yeah. And would turn into werewolf much later. I mean, would be bitten much later in the movie. So this part of the what you do with ADR... ...changing the moment of camera having him saying... ...basically changing his word and saying: "What happened to them?" to, "What happened to us?" And just realise it would help because people had a hard time... ...understanding when... It just didn't quite work, and if that scene just seems a little odd... . It's because it is. It just a little bit of patchwork to mend something... ... that just wasn't working. This one's gonna be pretty clear scene, though.

SO.... You know, putting the film in context of the time too. There was an ensuing writer's strike that was approaching... ...while we were writing the script, and we had to turn the script around... ... from a first draft to a shooting script in, like, 30 days. Really quick. And it was really a wonderful experience. We would have lunch in our offices every day. And we'd go through the script, and then the two writers... Dirk Blackman and Howard McCain. would work on the script. Len would work on the script, Patrick would work on the script. Bob McMahan would collate everything. Yeah, we all had our different colours. Different jobs, and in the evenings at 3, 4 in the morning... ...We get pages from Len. lt was just a wild experience, but we got the script done. lt worked, yeah.

We went for, like, one... One big transformation that I really like is the one where, you know... ...when Lucian regresses. We often see transformation one way, from a man to wolf. This time, it was like from the creature to the man. I was really pleased with that. Michael again gave us the whole choreography there. Beautiful shot. And Dan built us so many corridors. This is all like... I mean, we had a big chunk of corridors. We kept playing, turning around corners. lt was actually quite a big set. It was huge. lt was a three-storey set... ...basically all the way up to the ceiling of the thing. And with short ceiling on the lower floor... ...and then in the dungeon chamber, two storeys. And again, that's the big set. - The courtyard set. And this next action sequence too is an example... ...of just really squeezing everything out of what you've got... ...to make a sequence. I think we had, at the time... ...maybe two practical arrows that came in and maybe two hallways. And one real firing arrow, and just... We were able to be creative and make a whole sequence out of it. Well, this was one of the sequences that benefited the most... ... from Clint coming back with more money. I'm so glad we did that shot of the man in the face too. It was... - Excellent. Again, only one crossbow actually fires. Everything else was, you know, just editorial. You know, there's a huge culture of the weaponry... . like the machine gun in Underworld 7 and 2... ... that when you do a period, you just have bows and thing. lt was important that we have big bad-ass crossbow. They were more like machine guns than anything else. Just because I'm sure the audience liked what you had... ...with the guns, and the rifle and the other one. And that sort of like replaces it in some ways. The very powerful... We played with sound a lot there. So they look like when they shoot, they're really massively powerful. Same arrows. - Same arrows, yup. And who did the CG for the actual men that are getting pierced? We did extensive post vis with a company called Proof. And they had never done final VFX shots. Oh, Proof did that. - They came in and did the finals. They did a great, tremendous job. - Yeah, they're great. No! My lord. I wanted to do that shot so it feels like how big the corridor. I think it's kind of cool to see them walking across. It's a bit of an homage to Jacques Tati. Some things he's done, we see people walking for two hours before they... It's risky, but it sort of worked well with Bill in the foreground.

Wish we had more time with this shot. lt was just cut so short that to sell the idea it was just not... We couldn't do it. - Yeah, this is the one... Once, that him jumping out and the other two shots. The two other shots as well. And... - Kind of... You work hard on many things. There's always something that goes. You have to make choices. There's always some moments when you hope that people... ...are going for their popcorn. - That's right. Well, I don't think it's so much the quality of the work. lt was just the amount of frames we had to work with was so minimal... ...to sell the idea of a guy falling apart because of the sun was... lt was also that the green-screen part of that shot... ...was one of the last things we did. The elements themselves were too short. We were just running out of time... ...and scrambling to get everything in the can.

That, if anybody is interested... I called that on the day when I saw that bloody scar. That was actually the same one that Guy used for Singe. For Singe. When he gets busted by... - Exactly. When Viktor punches him in the crypt in number one. You see, if you never said that, nobody would have known. Now they... Hey, cost-effective. - That's right. There's a lot of recycling like this in makeup effect. If you're clever, you know... - Of course. I love this scene between them. - Yeah. And just the tension and, you know. And the next time you see them together... ...when they go in that room is one of my favourite moments. That one was like the little homage I wanted to make... ...at Murnau's Nosferatu. You know that creature that comes into that room. It feels like you don't know if he's gonna strike at him or stuff. And then we were really worried about this whole daylight. Forest daylight. Not Knowing what colour to get. We'd never gone outside before in the Underworld series at all. It just popped out and felt kind of, we had our... ...Xena conversations and worries. You know, with the combination of just... The costumes could only be but so different, you know. These guys are supposed to break out of prison and grab what they can... ...from the other soldiers. And then putting them in the forest. You know, Lucy Lawless comes in and it's all over. So we finally got, like a... Went with a bit more of a green stylized than normal daylight. That's the shot. What's funny is that Steven and Bill were actually very, very close friends. And they had dinner every night together... ...and in between takes they'd be sitting there talking to each other. And then get time to get back on the set. And then Bill would be bullying... I need to make a-- Oh, yeah, here. Just to make a little note, we haven't talked about the music here. Paul Haslinger was just... That was a challenging one. You don't wanna be too over-the-top with the music. Yet you wanna create a little suspense. And I think... He did the first Underworld as well. He did the first one as well. - Yeah. I love that. That was a... It's a perfect display of what Viktor is about and what he's like. And then Tannis' reaction to that I really loved. This was another shot that was vastly improved... ... after Clint fattened the visual-effects budget. Before it was like three guys standing around. It was seven guys. Don't be... - There was smoke, no flame. And no fire. It was nothing. The whole mountain behind Michael was CG.

Together we're strong.

I

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This was a treacherous location. These freaking roots everywhere. Everybody was tripping and falling. - It was like an Indian burial ground. lt was above a quarry. Maori sacred space, yeah. But everybody was tripping and falling there.

Now, did his makeup get less? Because when he first appeared, his makeup is quite strong. Kind of white, cakey... - You know what this is? We shot pretty much... - In order? Yeah, in order. Not completely, but not far from that. And there was a sense like it was... Which I like. I like the way it got toned down. It's better. I like Bill's makeup at the end much better as well. lt was a little more theatrical at the beginning. Another scene that changed dramatically... ... from the way that we originally shot it. So here, basically, there is just a little piece of corridor... ...and the green screen at the end. Everything was done by... Duboi did all the cave stuff and the werewolves. This is a gorgeous shot, this one here. All the detail on all the wolves in the background. That's a shot that came first as a very blue shot. You know, It's funny how blue sometimes looks CG. We ended up turning and make it much more brown... ...and I think feels more real suddenly. But I thought it was great to be able to see that many wolves together.

I remember that was in, that was out. I wanted it out. - Do we add CG to it? I Know, and it was just... It made more sense story-wise to keep it in. And that shot basically was given to us. You know, we had shot practical werewolves there. It didn't come out exactly the way we wanted. And those guys at Duboi said: "We've done the rest of the sequence. We want to make this one great." And basically-- Is that right, James? They wanted to do it. - That's so cool. They weren't happy with the elements as well. What did she put? What is that she's putting in there? Incense? - Or something like it. She's making a little soup. - She looks beautiful. I love how Viktor just pops up in the background there. I love that shot. And we had to darken on the wide one because he appeared... Yeah, we were just kind of like, with the DI, make him a little darker... We actually removed him from the first shot when she walks in. That's right. Yeah. He was there. So deep have I been in my own anguish at Lucian's betrayal... ...I gave no thought... One of those famous green window that protects you from the sun. The first time we got that shot, he was green like Hulk. And it was so insane. We had to tone it down quite a bit, then. I do like Bill when he's slightly, you know... Kind of riding the camp. Yeah. I just love that. But it's him. Perhaps. And then he becomes really real at moments like...

was he?

He's a consummate actor. He flew all night from Germany... ... from a Valkyrie premiere to come to our premiere. Did he? I didn't realise that. Remember that we had to let him go for two weeks... ...In the middle of the schedule to do... - Valkyrie? Reshoots? - Probably. No, he was going back to do something in England. Oh, yes, he was going-- Yeah. For the Richard Curtis movie. So he went around the world twice in like two weeks. Now this is Bill... This is Viktor biting Sonja. Genetic memories. It's all that visual language we used from Underworld 7 and 2. lt was something we had to kind of keep going. Father, please... I wanted to believe your lies though I knew it could not be true.

Father... ...I love him.

I

There's nobody else that could deliver a line like that. Right. You think about it, you don't see him often with blood around the mouth. It's so great to have those moments. There's one moment where Bill is sipping blood on a cup. And that was really kind of like almost a request. "Wouldn't it be great if we see actually us--?" You know, sometimes you just out this aside... ...and work on the rest of the story, but it's so important. This was all day for night. Day for night, yeah. All the night stuff in the forest. One of those things that you're really nervous is not gonna work. But it did. Actually, I do like that look here. It's actually more natural. We all grew up watching these heavily lit night outdoor scenes. So you think that's what's normal. But this is actually what your eye would actually see in the dark. This is more close to the way it actually Is.

Jared Turner is also a great actor. He's fantastic. Both those guys. What was the other guy? Oh, Craig Parker. They were both fantastic. It was really good. I mean, nobody.... with my life, and as long as I'm in command, so shall you.

That was one of those last-minute added comic lines.

with the contents of their armouries. The slaves have joined his ranks. Brasov. Back to the Romanian connection. That's a real city in Romania. Which we know well. One thing I regret, look on the floor, you can't really see well. The other... The coffins of the elders. I wish we'd made more of a point... - Me too. Because at the end-- You'll see. Yeah, but only if you're really into, you know, the details. I was really, really... This is something that went... I think there's, you know... You know, hopefully, half the people watching will get the connection... ...of Tannis saving the coffins at the end. One moment we could have happen is Lucian is being thrown on the floor. Thinking about it, he could've landed on one and made it much more... On the next one, maybe?

It's nice when you have actors that can ride horses like that. You don't have to get stunt doubles. New Zealanders are like that. They're tough. That's the blood stuff. Bill loved it. He's so enjoying it. Bill is a very sloppy drinker. - Yeah. And fake blood doesn't taste very good.

This was all a... A restructure edit as well. You know, you're going through it... ...I do believe you make your movie three times. And you get everything in and you put it together... ...as the script has laid out... ...and just sometimes, just pacing-wise... ...It doesn't work all together. This we flopped around quite a bit. Yeah. - And.... I think just to cut up... Remember we spent all the time in the forest. We never cut back to any of Viktor and all these things... ...and the conversation between Raze and Lucian... ...and then him gearing up. lt went straight from just him talking to Raze... ...and then the swords going in and it just felt awkward.

Originally, I remember, it was gonna be raining... ... during that whole sequence, and we couldn't afford it. So it just rained at the end. It does rain. It does start raining, which is part of the gag. But it was supposed to be pouring rain the entire time, and we just realised... Now, budget-wise, are we--? Am I correct when I say 35? lam, right? Yeah, yeah. - So we're 35. Everybody always asking what if when I was... You know, checking out DVDs, I was always curious... ...at what the budget was. So we're 35 and... What was the first one? - The first one was 23. But that was when the dollar was a lot stronger. So in actual purchasing power... ...wWe really didn't have that much more this time. The dollar was I think at like 94 cents to the euro. And when shot this it was 1.50 to the euro. And what was the second one, 45, 48? The second one was 51. Fifty-one, right. - Yeah. But... - We got a lot for the money. We had fewer shoot days. We had fewer shoot days on this one than we did on the first one. First one, I think we had... What did we have on this, 55? We had like 60 on the first one. That's not fair. What's the deal? Just trying to make it interesting. Make it interesting.

Not without you. The first one was, I think, a harder shoot, though. lt was six-day weeks, nights. lt was a hard shoot. But only seven of you speak the same language. That's right. Yeah. That was interesting. And everyone of the... Well, not everyone. But there were a lot of Atillas in Hungary. Everybody named Atilla. The grip, the cameraman. The good thing is, when you get upset and you yell, "Atilla"... . like, everybody comes to the rescue.

Remember, that was gonna be a much bigger scene too. That's not two stunt doubles. We did this again. That's another one we pulled. So you know that set you're looking at, the underworld of the castle? The underground part is actually the same wall... ...we used to make the canyon at the beginning for Sonja. Now, Patrick, explain this. Some people have asked me what Viktor is holding. I was tempted to cut that out. We built a doll as something he give to his daughter. The only time you see it before that is in the memory. It is there. I think it's just a wide shot. It's also there when he gives her the necklace. Yeah. - But you don't... We haven't been able... At one point, I was ready to lose that. I thought... But it is something he gives the daughter. I have a question here. What is in these barrels? I never quite figured that out. It's kind of like some very special oil... ... from mediaeval time. Like mediaeval napalm or something? What's in those barrels is me going that we have... ...No different kind of... You know, we can't do just swordplay after swordplay. It's some kind of explosion element, mediaeval version. Yeah, we need to have that. I think this scene works great. It's very successful. I love him screaming against the door, there's so much energy there. I tried to have him have a little dialogue moment here. Just didn't work. - No, it didn't work. It just felt totally awkward, so. There's something about them looking at each other... ... that they have a poignant... Now the rain. Pain in the ass, but I think it worked well. It worked very well. Everything that's a pain in the ass looks better. And conversely, everything that looks good is a pain in the ass. All the elements of snow and wind and fire and all that. Remember on the first Underworld... ... you were adamant about wanting... ...a lot of these scenes to happen in the rain. "No, dude, we can't do it. It's gonna be such a--" And you stuck to your guns. Thank God you did. It looked great. Do you remember how much I had to fight for that rain? Yes, I do. When you're on the same set for the entire movie... ... you'd better find ways to reinvent it. And the rain was one way for us to give it a different tone. I just think that something horribly... Just tragic happened... ...1n Richard's life with rain. Did you have the same problem on number one? But it does. It makes everything a kind of a nightmare to... The equipment... - But the result is... Hey, two words: Romania, winter. Imagine if we had had to shoot this in Romania in the winter. But the other thing that you get with the rain is you're able to do.... Have your stunt doubles replacing these primary actors... ... 1M a way so that you really don't even know the difference. I can't picture this in a dry... I mean, this gives such a different energy. Yes. And the lighting on top of that. Just flashes and... All right, next movie I won't argue about the rain, I promise. It's about time, Richard.

Heartbeats. A miracle, Father.

Bill, he's almost like a bird in his reactions... ...and his head twitches. iS a monstrosity. Remember that scene? His contacts were completely off in different directions... ...because of the rain. I gotta say something about the sword fight we just went through. Rhona just basically had a little practise and then she... She was working on those an hour before. Yeah. - It was crazy. And.... I think she's been in that business before. Yeah. - Yeah. She came on board already having quite a bit of practise and everything. Definitely. lt seems like a lot of English actors are naturally... Because they have to take swordplay in their drama schools... ... that they're a lot more comfortable with swords... ...than American actors ever are. Don't they do that? They just teach horseback and sword fighting in England? Certainly sword fighting, yeah. Well, they both ride horses. They know how to use a sword. Definitely there's a big.... Yeah, it makes a huge difference. Yeah. I mean, there's a few things about Rhona that just fascinate me. What I like the best is when she sometimes... You'll see a moment there when the door opens behind her... ...ow she looks, and like I said, she doesn't say anything. And there's so much that shows through the eyes. The vulnerability. And she's really, really deliver that. Crazy. And you don't always see that when you shoot the movie. When you get back to the editing table and you start, you know... . It's a totally new discovery about those moments. I didn't perceive them always. Like look at now. This moment. See how she looks at him? To me, it's just, like, so charged, this.

All of you! This is another moment. Remember during the script? How is it that you keep Lucian from being able to transform... ...and save her, yet he's gonna have to change in the end... ...to transform and escape from Viktor? This was the solution. Silver arrows in his back to keep him from transforming. This is the first day of shoot of Michael, which is tough for an actor. The first day you come is just to get dropped on the floor... ...and look dizzy. I wish the schedule allowed us to start with something else... ...but it was very... Yeah, actually this was right after... This was day two, I think. It was his first day. It was his first day of shoot. And it had to be, because we had to actually change the set around... ...for later on. - Exactly. I think this was one of Rhona's best scenes. I thought it was just-- When writing and how it all come together... ... this was above what I thought it was on the page for sure. your station as a council member.

How vote you? The sound design in this scene is great too. SO, like, Lucian here is a little dizzy, obviously. He's got the two arrows in his back. That's why he doesn't have the energy to do anything at the time. And you always wish, you know, that you could... I wish we could have explained that a little bit more. But you get to a point where you... ... you know, If you do explain it, you've got this dialogue that... "Put the silver arrows in him so that he can't change." You know... - ls anything worse? And you hope that by focusing in on them... ...and doing close-ups later on... You get the idea why. People know then what's going on. Another one also. This is a pretty rough scene. The father just... This shot of Viktor, this is such a great shot. This is real statue-like. It's like so... But you see the sorrow sort of... It's just great.

I love the music there as well. Again, just wanna say that there's something there, the tone. I wanted something that feels a bit Byzantine. Not just like... There was an Oriental flavour to it. And the whole movie had a bit of that in the architecture. But also Paul Haslinger sort of brought some of that in the music as well. So you'll see, what we did here was that chamber is... It has a look that is very similar. We made sure that there was... You know, that the arches, the seal, the background, the fire pits... ... if you compare the two films, they... It's definitely getting as close as we could... ...with just doing it the way that honestly I'd always wanted to. And we had to make a decision of, okay, do we stick with something... ... that quite honestly I was not ever thrilled with... ...1n terms of reusing a set... ...and not having the image of Sonja that I really wanted... ... that would fit with the story. Or do we get a chance to just now do it properly? And so that's the decision that was made. And I hope it hasn't caused too much confusion. The only thing, Len, is If we had attempted that... ... It would have felt like a shock in the middle of the movie. Something that didn't blend at all. It would have actually hurt it as well. I'm glad we said, you know, let's go for it. Because texture-wise, it was such a different look. What's sad also is that we reused the set again. We still didn't get away from that. We built these big dishes, all this motif to kind of bring it back here. Yeah, right here. This is the chamber when the humans walk in. The great hall. - The great hall. That is that set. And then we brought in other pieces. I remember on the day we just kind of grabbed the different walls... ...and set pieces and made it. It's my favourite set. - A great-looking set. And it's really-- You get so excited when you're able to do that... ...because you go from, what are we gonna do with this small chamber. So you put it in a grand hall. You light it differently. You put the thing. And then you have this amazing set that you didn't have to pay for. We paid for it, but, you know, don't have to pay for it twice. This is one that Dan really pulled out of his butt too. He did this for almost nothing. And at the top part of the ceiling again... ...IS part of this feeling of change from the original movie... . Slightly different design, Forét Bleue did the... And again, It's just... - Did the CGI work. Because also, this has... There was a bit more detail in the design... ...of having a chance to create a lot more in this one. And the other, you know... What I did in the first one, again, you know... . it was an add-on, you know, a last-minute scene. And it's like a little miniature, like a disc. Somebody's just kind of pushing out of the way. A 3-foot model, yeah. I just wanted to mention the two piece of chain... ... that are pulling both ways at one point... ... you saw two minutes ago was actually stolen from Underworld 2. This was a-- William thing. - When William... You mean the two--? - You know who noticed that? That is a great shot. - At the premier? That is such a beautiful shot. Nick De Toth, our editor. - Did he? I really wanted this to happen really quickly. And we have some, you know... I thought it was great. lt was enormously tragic. Beautiful, beautiful effect. And I loved to go... Remember when we did the temp music on this? This was hard music to get. You just gotta hit it right with not being too overboard... ...and not being too dark, because It's still tragic. We did probably five, I don't know, different versions... ...I remember that we were looking at. The one, remember, we had in the temp music... ...Was actually getting... There was something in there we like, and we went to Paul. We said, you know, there's something interesting in there.

So here, Michael still has the two arrows on his back. And obviously... Maybe we should have put that in subtitle. Yeah. I know. Or just little arrows. - Have them still smoking or something. You know, I heard people say that Underworld is... That's the same model too from Underworld 7. That's right. It is. See? Same burnt blond. See, we really care about the details. You do.

I had to use your old stuff, and that's not cool. The old werewolves. The old dummies. Thank God you kept that in your office. There was a lot stuff that... I Kept getting these calls. "We're trying to track down the medallion." It would all pretty much go to a phone call of my assistant going: "Oh, I think it's in Len's office." We had to take half your furniture. I sent everyone to you. Do you think we can find this or so? Yeah, Len. Call Len's assistant. Fetch me my knives. I'm sorry.

Here they are. - Here they come. Coming out now. He can turn again. - Werewolf time. This is a great moment too. Lycan against vampire. - I love that shot. Him rising up. I think we used that in the trailer. It's such a great moment.

I remember there was a whole other piece of sequence... ...before he actually landed that we cut out. Just didn't... I think it plays great without it, though. This is practical and CGI mixed together for the wolf again. With Luma not doing the effects. And it's... This was the one we struggled with the most. When the creature starts crawling up right here. You need to tell the story of him climbing to the top. Some angles just looks like a man in a suit. Completely. We just kind of cut around. I do love the breathing Mike Babcock did for this as well. I mean, this little breathing of... Before he.... The howl. - That's right. Call to the-- Call to arms. So that's a mix of, like, a bunch of different sounds together. Gorilla, tiger, lions and things. That's what he did, I think. Yeah, that right there you're talking about, right? With the nose. And the snarl. Yeah, that's cool. I love that. That little sound that he makes. This is unfortunately one of the places... ...Where you had to cut a bunch of effects shots out. Like the wolves arriving. No matter how much money they give us, you always need more. When it's your peak you have to kind of be selective... ...and just sometimes it's a better trim. Still, I would have loved to see them coming from the back there. Yeah.

I love this shot. We see the scale of the pack. I remember when we screened this film to Screen Gems for the first time... ... the executives were looking at each other, going: "Holy shit." They had no idea it was gonna be that big. I like how Bill turns like: Again, super fast.

Kevin with his pulled muscle. Remember he pulled his muscle that day? First run, he pulls his muscle. We have no Kevin for the rest of the run. He's not an easy guy to double either. We filmed someone, sort of. We did actually find one guy. - We found a double, but he didn't... Didn't look alike from the front, but from the back... .it was actually not so bad. Not an easy guy to double in New Zealand.

You did put that Wilhelm scream in there. Oh, yeah. I thought-- That's right. Well, you have to. We had that discussion where you decided that you didn't want it there. No, that was our sound guy. Mike wasn't sure, but... These are some great shots, though. Really violent. This one's one of my favourites. - Yeah, me too. No, mine, mine.

Kevin is still bummed today... ... that we had a great mid-stage makeup for him. Half-way werewolf, which we had designed, which looked really cool. We never ended up using it because the way the sequence was shot... It was a great makeup. I'm actually sorry that we didn't have it in the movie in the end. It was like mid-stage. Basically the way he arrives there. Michael, naked again. The guy spent a lot of time without clothes on. He never complained, though. Especially in the forest at night in the rain. Oh, man. That could not have been fun.

There's one key for like 250 people. They're gonna have to do it really fast. This is a great shot too. Except for the columns. Actually, James, that's a good point. They used in the old movies, they used to make good columns... ... for people to transform behind them. We don't need it, but we still had columns. You would have preferred having no columns. Just have them run up and... We didn't need columns, but it was kind of... Oh, God, yeah. You're right. I didn't think of that.

No, Len and I's favourite werewolf shot is coming. Right now. - That's the one. Not everybody agrees, though. I think it looks like a pure animal. I like it. So that was Tannis lowering the coffins. And like we said before, we wish we... There was an idea of a shot of the crate with, like, holes... ... gaping holes in there... ...Which we never had a chance to shoot either. And I hope people get the connection that the first generation werewolves... ...are longer snout, more hair... ...and as they progressed and turned into Lycans... ...the shorter snout and less hair. I think people sometimes get confused about... ... Just why there's a different look for them. I gotta say something about this sequence. As we were working on it, trying to figure out how to shoot this... ... he's walking in the middle of a battle... What was our first AD again? Paul Grinder. Paul Grinder was sitting down, says, "How will we make this work?" And the first idea we came up with was like... Paul was very involved in this. is trying to isolate him from the battle... ...and just concentrate on Lucian... ...and not try to show every little detail... ...of what's going on. And I think it ended up being more explicit that way. It sort of made economy a virtue. It's always handy when that happens. Well, you know, at this point in the story... ...Lucian doesn't like Viktor at all after killing Sonja. Not much. - He doesn't like him. I was-- I never... - The audience is very prepared. Why did he take off his armour right there? Was that something that--? Was that a Bill suggestion? Or do you remember or--? - I actually don't remember. The armour thing was... This was the crypt set that was rebuilt. I'll tell you why he took off his armour. Because Bill couldn't fight or do anything with this armour. Yeah, that pit that he was just in... ... yeah, that was something we... The council chamber was redone. Yeah, we were trying to figure out a way to get... You know, show a transition water scene. You guys put that together relatively fast too. Yeah, the whole thing was built inside a pool liner, basically. So that when we finished shooting the council... ...basically fill it with water... ...do a couple of minor changes, build the dock. Presto, set number two. I think that there's a geographical logic in this. At the bottom of that thing there is water, in fact. And behind that, behind the mountain range, there's a sea... ...Wwhich you're of course gonna see in a little bit. So the castle is connected to the sea by those shafts.

This scene turned out so beautiful and great. And we shot that in what? - In like a day and a half. Because we ran out of time. - The whole thing. Remember, we were always allowed two days, which wasn't enough. We kept having to put more and more stuff at the end of the schedule. That was the last day. - The last thing we shot. James, who did the extending that tunnel? Really, it's just fantastic. This right here, it's just maybe two or three levels... ...and then it goes into green screen. It's a company called Element with a guy named Alex Ethier. Alex was stunning. - Alex was great. The smoke work and this chain. - He did the chain as well. The chain is great. And the smoke. The chain sounded like a joke until we finally made it. As a concept, we didn't think it worked. I believed in it. You're the only one who thought it would work. That's fantastic. But, Len, that was your line, wasn't it? "But you didn't." lt was. I'm not... - The blood. I'm not thrilled with it. I was never completely happy with it. I thought it worked. - Yeah. It basically gave it a little bit of a comic-y tone in some way, doesn't it? A little bit. I like the first half of it more than the second half. I remember here we were gonna have his eyes open underwater. We shot that. - We shot it and didn't use it. Yeah, it was weird. We had a moment of Viktor opens his eyes. And it had to take place... It made the most sense that it happened right now... ...before this shot right here. And it just made it seem like... Anticlimactic. That Lucian didn't actually succeed. And here he is giving a speech and everybody is cheering... ...when really Viktor's got his eyes open. It just didn't fit. Sometimes you keep trying shots just because they're cool. And that's a big mistake. I thought it would be unclear, honestly. Yeah, it would completely be unclear. A tiled shot there. All those extras used three, four times. It's so tough to wrap up a movie with, you know... What would exactly, you know--? What's said at the end? And we had a lot of things to cover. Remember, Patrick? This movie has about three endings. In a sense, yes. Because there's the ending of this... ...and then there's the reveal and then Kate's monologue. Yes, yeah. Not a monologue, but her... - VO, yeah. And that's why, that was part of the reason... ...Why we felt weird about also the eyes. lf it were in the right place, it was like he had another ending. Oh, he's still alive. This shot was one of the last shot we got. And I think this is great. We played with the wolf until the end. I was very happy with this. And you got your ship. Yeah. The ship. We originally had... Another present from another... Luma. We had originally used the rowboat that Tannis was going off in. That became a miniature. It just didn't work. Yeah, that one didn't really work. That's funny, because I remember when I saw the dailies of it... ...I see that over the mountains, I mean, wow, that's fantastic. And then you get closer and so close, you go: "Wait, that's not a ship. That's--" That's a bathtub. - It's like a little toy. It's not sexy. And this end here, I always had... ...an interest in putting this end on tt... ... this end piece to wrap it into the first film. And remember we talked about it, whether it was gonna work or not. And the first edit didn't have it. And is it gonna disconnect too much? We've just gone through the story. And I'm really glad that it fit. This is fantastic. - It did in the end. And I think people really have responded. I think you realise that there is actually such a purpose... ...to Sonja's, you know, character and the tie-in and all that, so... The other thing that you feel... You know, look, the five of us here... ...can absolutely say this, is that when you see the ending... ...with Kate on the belfry tower... ... you feel like this has been an eight-year journey. It wasn't just this movie. It was this journey that, you know, came out of the script... ...eight years ago that we went to Budapest with... ...and we went to Vancouver with... ...and we went to Auckland, New Zealand with... ...and, you know. That's true. We've been everywhere. But that's... We need to find a cool place for the next one. Greece. Greece. Hawaii. - Hawaii, yeah. It's why people wanna get into our business... ... 1S because they hear us sort of think about... ... you know, talking about how it was eight years in the making... . three movies. We haven't talked much about one guy, Ross Emery. Gosh, that's like-- That's wrong. Because the way the movie looks, it is very much because of Ross. And Ross has been stunning. He's the most patient man in the universe. Incredible. Fantastic. Thank you, Ross. - Gosh. We have a tendency sometimes, we talk about the look of movies... ...to concentrate on design of things. Well, it's shot as well, you know. And it's a bunch of things. Obviously, all those great shots we had seen. I remember too. And I remember being in Vancouver... ...and Patrick was making designs for Underworld 2... ...and he was in his office... ...and I walked in there and I said to him, I said: "Patrick, you ever thought about directing a movie?" And he said, "Well, I wanna direct a movie." And that was where the seed was sown a little bit of... A little bit. It was very small, remember. It was where the seed was planted. - That's where you first thought ot it. What a good idea. Maybe I should direct. Cool. All right. No, I was glad that, you know, that you've got... l've heard a lot of response about... ... you know, with the end, seeing Kate up there... ... that it makes people want to go back and watch the first one. And actually if you... I hope they do... ...because if you do go back and watch the first one... ... you'll see how much it really has been laid into that film... .all the details of what's going on in this one. And I think sometimes, series... ... they kind of have to try, you know, they have to cheat to get there. Right. And it was always something that we had hoped to do. And we're very glad that it's actually up there. Well, good night. This is the longest end crawl, I think, in the history of cinema. But there was a ton of people. - So Kate Beckinsale got a credit. That's great. - Absolutely. Oh, I see. Well, there's the confusion. I see, because there's so many, you know... Of course it's in my household, there's a lot of, you kKnow... Well, why does she show up on--? I see, she's actually on the credits. Because it's like, you know, oh, it's a cheat. They think Selene... They think Kate's in the movie. And it's a clip. It's all about the story itself, wrapping it together... ...not trying to get everybody in the theatre... ... thinking there's a cameo. This is one of the longest end crawls ever. Every single one of these people worked on the movie. That's how big it was. Are we supposed to talk until the end of this crawl? Should we? I don't know. Do you guys wanna go? Thank you all here once again. It has been an eight-year journey, right? Yeah. - It has indeed. And for all of us, in some way. A different level. When did I--? I met Patrick, what year? It was like '93. Stargate, no? - Yeah. Oh, my God. I started my career. - That's 16 years ago. That's 16 years ago. My God. I used to be like the young guy on the set. And that's not how... You're still the young guy here, man. Cool. Thanks, you guys. And thanks for the... Hopefully there are still people that are still listening... ...and not falling asleep. Good night. Just go to bed.