Kate Beckinsale Returns For 'Underworld 4'

Vapid beauty or intelligent British thespian? Kate Beckinsale has had a very curious career or has come a long way depending on how you look at it. Remember when she played a mousy intellectual in Whit Stillman's "The Last Days Of Disco"? Then the actress moved to L.A. and her brains -- or acting choices -- seemed to gravitate south (one could argue they were what helped fill out her once fairly non-existent chestal region).

Well, if you want to figure out her true colors, remember this: somewhere along the way she decided marrying her "Underworld" director, hack Len Wiseman, would be a good idea. This is not entirely true (the true colors part) as Beckinsale did some solid work in the little-seen drama "Nothing But The Truth," but more often than not, she's become a b-movie heroine for waste-of-time pictures like "Whiteout."

So in another dubious move, the actress has agreed to star in "Underworld 4" (yes, they've somehow arrived at a fourth installment of this grown up vampires vs. werewolves actioner). And no, she's not doing her husband a favor (well, not exactly). According to THR, Screen Gems/Lakeshore Entertainment are on the look out for a new director, plus a young girl to play the lead actresses' daughter. But Wiseman, who produced "Underworld: Evolution" and "Underworld: Rise Of The Lycans" will probably take on that role again with this installment. Production is set to begin in March 2011.

The reasons why Beckinsale might be returning to the role, aside from a paycheck, could be two fold: one, the series made her career in Hollywood, transforming her into the aforementioned, semi-bankable female action star we were previously lamenting, and two, she hasn't been in a hit since an "Underworld" film; become Angelina Jolie she has not. It probably also helped seeing Milla Jovovich prove that that there is still an audience for spandex-and-violence actioners when "Resident Evil: Afterlife" took the number one spot at the box office a couple of weeks back.

The script was written by former comics writer J. Michael Straczynski who penned Clint Eastwood's "Changeling." The "Underworld" franchise has made over $300 million worldwide with the films never venturing past a $35 million budget mark, so it's clear why the studio loves this film. The question is, do you and if so, why?