Len Wiseman Talks 'Underworld' TV Series & 'Die Hard: Year One'

The “Underworld” franchise has achieved the remarkable feat of lasting five films, but making no real impact on the pop culture sphere. The series — which is best known as that one where Kate Beckinsale wears leather and points guns at people — has always made a tidy profit, and pulled in enough overseas to justify making another one, but no one actually cares about the films. (Do they?) In fact, before last year’s “Underworld: Blood Wars,” there was already talk of rebooting the property entirely, and while they ultimately decided to continue for one more flick, the time has arrived to give it a fresh coat of paint.

Director Len Wiseman, a longtime franchise staple, is producing the developing “Underworld” TV series. What will it be about? It’ll probably still focus on vampires and lycans, but Wiseman says to expect the unexpected too.

“The series will be a pretty big departure from the films,” he told Deadline. “I don’t want to say it’s more adult, but it’s definitely less comic book in its tone and character.”

Meanwhile, Wiseman says he’s still working on that new “Die Hard” movie that you forgot was happening. Working with the title “Die Hard: Year One,” the premise is that the movie will toggle back and forth between present day John McClane, and the 1970s past of the character, when he was just a regular beat cop in rough and tumble New York City.

“[In the first ‘Die Hard’] He’s already divorced, he’s bitter, his Captain hates him and doesn’t want him back. So, what created that guy?” Wiseman said last year. “We’ve never seen the actual love story. We know its demise, but we’ve never seen what it was like when he met Holly, or when he was a beat cop in ’78 in New York when there was no chance of him making detective. It’s always been something I’ve been thinking about, and now we’re doing it. And it ties in.”

Right now, it’s all about finding the right actor to play Young McClane, a decision that will be all the more crucial, since I can only imagine 20th Century Fox will want to keep making “Die Hard” movies until the end of time.