The movie was initially pitched as "Romeo and Juliet for vampires and werewolves".
The actors only had two weeks of wirework and prop training for the movie.
Director Len Wiseman opted to shoot many of the action and effects sequences live, without computer imagery. In one scene a werewolf seems to run more than 50 mph behind a speeding car. The scene was shot using an elaborate rig towed behind a vehicle, with actor Michael Sheen doing the running.
White Wolf, Inc. and author Nancy A. Collins filed suit against Sony Pictures, Screen Gems, and Lakeshore Entertainment on 4 September 2003 for copyright infringement little more than a week before the theatrical release of Underworld, alleging 17 counts of copyright infringement, and claiming over seventy points of unique similarity between White Wolf's roleplaying games, "Vampire: The Masquerade", "Werewolf: The Apocalypse", and their creation, "The World of Darkness", in which the games are set. Nancy A. Collins is the author of a short story, "The Love of Monsters", published in 1994 by White Wolf Inc, and set in the World of Darkness, which she claims the entire plot of Underworld is based on.
At the start of the movie when Selene encounters a werewolf in the train tunnel, you hear a wolf howl - the sound effect is taken directly from An American Werewolf in London (1981).
Michael Corvin, played by Scott Speedman, was named after Ashe Corven from The Crow: City of Angels (1996). The character name of Ashe Corven was previously named Michael Corvin.
Days before its US opening, the president of Screen Gems green lit not only a sequel to the movie Underworld but also a prequel after seeing the number of tickets sold in Canada alone.
The ancient tome which Selene uses to research the history of Kraven is a Latin prayerbook (with appropriately vampiric illustrations added). The first two pages visible onscreen contain the "Proper of the Second Mass for All Souls Day" and the second set are Psalms. The rest of the pages are shown too far from the camera to make out clearly.
The 'attack dogs' outside of the vampire mansion were actually very docile and playful canines, which were the only dogs available at the time. For the scene where they chase Scott Speedman, director Len Wiseman had to film short clips of the dogs running and later put in sounds of vicious barking. If you look closely though you can see their tails happily wagging back and forth.
The woman in the picture Selene finds in Michael's apartment is the wife of writer Danny McBride.
'Selene', the heroine's name, is the Moon in Greek mythology.
The name of the city where the film took place is never mentioned. However Michael's address that we can see on Selene's computer shows that the city is Budapest.
After the underground station fight, the tunnels where Selena kills a Lycan is a champagne cellar.
Michael Sheen and Wentworth Miller were both interviewed for the Scott Speedman role.
It only took two days to film Wentworth Miller's role.
The song used for the trailer is called "Red Tape" by Agent Provocateur.
The underground tunnels used for the Lycan/vampire battle at the end of the movie were mostly shots of the same small rubble set, but shot from different angles and lighting in order to make it look like different locations underground. During the DVD commentary, director Len Wiseman laughed at this fact and pointed out the scenes in which this trick photography was used.
There were no special effects used to alter Kevin Grevioux's (Raze's) voice. It actually gets that deep naturally.
According to writer/actor Kevin Grevioux, the model for the Selene character was the psychic vampire of the Hellfire Club in the X-Men comics, the Black Queen Selene. |
