Interview: Chicago ‘Underworld: Rise of the Lycans’ Writer Kevin Grevioux on Science-Based Vampires

CHICAGO – While Alfred Hitchcock and more recently M. Night Shyamalan have teetered between whether or not to write roles for themselves into their own scripts, there’s no tottering for Chicago-born Marvel Comics [11] writer and “Underworld: Rise of the Lycans [16]” character creator Kevin Grevioux [9].

For the inside story behind the 2009 “Underworld: Rise of the Lycans” film from the lips of the “Underworld [15]” character creator (the original Kate Beckinsdale [8] film opened in 2003), HollywoodChicago.com sat down with the vastly brawny and distinctly deep-voiced Kevin Grevioux on the film that makes the series a trilogy.

Rhona Mitra stars in “Underworld: Rise of the Lycans”.
Photo credit: Lakeshore Entertainment Group

“When I wrote the original ‘Underworld’ script, I had my role in it and I knew what I had to do,” Grevioux said in a Chicago interview with HollywoodChicago.com editor-in-chief Adam Fendelman on the topic of his Lycan (werewolf) character named Raze. “I had to taper it to make sure it fit well within the film. I had to make it big enough but not too small.”

Grevioux continued: “After I finished my screenplay, the other writers (Len Wiseman [10] and Danny McBride [4]) were making the role bigger. We all were. But I said at one point: ‘Hold up, fellas. We can’t go down this path. If this role is too big, then they’re gonna get LL Cool J or whoever is the flavor-of-the-month black man to play it and I won’t be able to.’”

That’s when Grevioux knew it was time to defend his own character holy grail. He added: “So we tapered it down some so it would be cool for me but not as attractive to a bigger actor.”

This was at a time when Grevioux was new in the industry and hadn’t yet earned today’s prized Hollywood star power. He added: “At the time, none of us had done a film before. We were all new and had no power. I identify myself more as a writer than an actor. Acting is something I fell into because I had the look – whatever that means – or distinctiveness. But writing is really where I flourish. I have a wealth of ideas.”

To understand Grevioux’s “Underworld” writing in contrast to so many other vampire incarnations including the hit 2008 film “Twilight [17],” its 2009 sequel “New Moon [18],” “True Blood [19]” on HBO [20], all the Anne Rice vampire novels and the underrated foreign child vampire film “Let the Right One In [21],” one must understand the source from which he derived his vampire and werewolf perspective.

Michael Sheen (left) and Kevin Grevioux star in “Underworld: Rise of the Lycans”.
Photo credit: Lakeshore Entertainment Group

As a self-professed conspiracy theorist and sci-fi fanatic with science degrees in microbiology and genetic engineering, Grevioux didn’t write “Underworld” vampires with the typical sense of mysticism. Instead, he created them through science in the way he believes they actually could be.

Continue reading on page two… [22]

(Go back to page one… [23])

“There are a lot of things about the mythos of vampires and werewolfs that vary so much when you try to get your head around it. They didn’t make sense to me,” Grevioux said. “Why can I see you if you’re sitting across from me? If you’re a vampire, why don’t you cast a reflection in a mirror? Why does a cross make a vampire cringe? They have their mystical reasons. The rules are amorphous.”

So, Grevioux cleaned the slate and guided his Hollywood pen using the building blocks of our very DNA. Grevioux added: “When looking at the panoply of vampire and werewolf lore out there, I decided to get rid of it and make it based on science.”

He continued: “For me, it all started because of a plague or super rabies where the infected cells were fused with wolf or bat DNA after being bitten. That made more comic-book sense. I could go with that. When you get into the origins of these creatures, if it’s mystical then you’ve got to bring in other things. They still don’t always play out and you wonder why. I never liked that.”

Marvel Comics vs. DC Comics

“Underworld: Rise of the Lycans” writer and actor Kevin Grevioux in Chicago on Jan. 19, 2009. Photo credit: Adam Fendelman, HollywoodChicago.com

On the topic of comic titans Marvel Comics versus DC Comics [24], Grevioux’s stance doesn’t waiver about which is superior. He’s a “Marvel zombie” all the way.

“I like the Marvel characters a lot more,” Grevioux said. “They’re richer in character. They have more problems. Batman might be the possible exception, but I still find Batman to be like a Superman or Wonder Woman type because he can do anything.”

He added: “Marvel characters can’t do everything. They have their limitations. That’s what makes them so interesting. That’s the essence of a character.”

Grevioux continued: “If you have a character like Superman who can’t be hurt and doesn’t have any weakness [except for Kryptonite], why are you doing a movie about him? What good does he do?”

“That’s why the best incarnation of Superman so far has been the Max Fleischer cartoons,” Grevioux said. “There he was super strong, but he could be hurt. That’s where you get courage from. Dealing with a situation even though you might struggle or be hurt or killed is what makes you heroic.”

With the past year arguably being the year of the superhero film with blockbuster releases such as “The Dark Knight [25],” “Iron Man [26],” “The Incredible Hulk [27],” “Hellboy II: The Golden Army [28],” “Hancock [29],” “Punisher: War Zone [30],” “The Spirit [31]” and “Watchmen [32]” in 2009, “X-Men Origins: Wolverine [33]” in 2009 and “Superman: Man of Steel” in 2011, why are we so superhero addicted?

Continue reading on page three… [34]

(Go back to page two… [22]) (Go back to page one… [23])

“The initial attraction was always to be something more than what you are,” Grevioux said. “The initial powers were just heightened aspects of what humans could already do like being able to run fast, lift heavy weights or being resistant to injury. But nowadays – with the level of technology that brings them to life – it lends itself to a very visual type of movie. It’s one thing to see it in a comic book, but to be able to make it look real, that really puts you into a fantasy.”

Grevioux (who has written Marvel comics on characters including Spider-Man, Iron Man, Dr. Strange and Young Avengers) especially scratched his feline curiosity itch in our interview with the Iron Man and Batman characters. He believes they’re not so far off from what could actually be.

Bill Nighy (left) and Rhona Mitra star in “Underworld: Rise of the Lycans”.
Photo credit: Ken George, Lakeshore Entertainment Group

“Someone could go out there and be Batman. Now they’re gonna get shot,” Grevioux said while erupting into laughter, “but you can see a guy going out there, putting on a batsuit and beating a couple guys up. Now with Iron Man, you do wonder… They have different aspects of military armor with weapons on them. Man, I wonder…”

Putting on his conspiracy cap, Grevioux added: “I believe there are scientists out there who do push the edge when it comes to science. You can’t tell me someone has not created a suit of armor or even just a prototype. Now it doesn’t look like the slick one we saw in ‘Iron Man,’ but I can guarantee you it has gauntlets, guns on the shoulders and is resistant to bullets. It probably just can’t move very far very fast. But they’ve tried it. I like thinking about stuff like that.”

Grevioux uses his old physics and genetic engineering books as inspiration for new writing material.

Bill Nighy in “Underworld: Rise of the Lycans”. Photo credit: Ken George, Lakeshore Entertainment

“I’ll flip through them and, for example, create some soldiers in outer space for an extended amount of time,” Grevioux said. “Now how would that be done? With some recombinant DNA techniques, why can’t you inject soldiers with chloroplasts so they can get their nourishment from solar energy?”

Grevioux added: “Dang. That’s kind of cool. You might get skinny, but you won’t die of starvation because you are getting your nourishment through the sun or refracted or reflected sunlight. It could work.”

Kevin Grevioux’s Chicago Roots

Though there’s no surprise that he’s now a Los Angeles guy, Grevioux has one word to sum up his primary memory of Chicago: “Pizza.”

“I’m a huge pizza freak,” Grevioux said. “When we were kids in Chicago, we used to go to the Home Run Inn. I remember Giordano’s and Gino’s where people would carve their names in the walls. I also remember going to Wrigley Field as a kid because one of my favorite baseball players at the time was Dick Allen.”

Wrapping Up the ‘Underworld’ Film Series

Might there be a fourth “Underworld” film? Grevioux says the third one does the series justice.

“In a lot of ways, ‘Underworld: Rise of the Lycans’ is superior to all the other ones. We get more of the Lycans, the origin of the whole war and we get the sympathy that comes with it,” Grevioux said. “It’s like Spartacus meets werewolfs. That’s what you want. It’s about a Lycan revolt.”

RELATED IMAGE GALLERY See our full “Underworld: Rise of the Lycans” image gallery. [35] RELATED READING Read more writing from critic Adam Fendelman. [2]

Using William Shakespeare’s story of Romeo and Juliet as an archetype, Grevioux based “Underworld” on his real-life experiences with interracial dating and the tension often associated with it.

“The best films are those that are not about the genre in which they are created. Even though I use horror characters, ‘Underworld’ told the story of a forbidden, interracial love amid the backdrop of a centuries-old race war,” Grevioux said.

He added: “Having dated interracially, you see the stares you get when you walk past certain people. In being a bigger guy, you’re not going to necessarily get into confrontations like you would back in the 1960s, but the ire from some people is still there. That’s unfortunate.”

So who would win in a fight to the death between a vampire and a werewolf? While the vampire has eclipsed the werewolf in popular culture and more people cling to the fanged creatures than the hairy beasts, Grevioux’s writing isn’t politically correct.

“The way I designed this series is that it would take two vampires to take down one Lycan, but that has somewhat changed as people identify more with vampires,” he said. Grevioux concluded proudly: “In the first ‘Underworld’ film, though, I killed a vampire who I faced off with hand to hand.”

[36]	By ADAM FENDELMAN [37] Editor-in-Chief HollywoodChicago.com adam@hollywoodchicago.com [36]