Kate Beckinsale is back as the dual guns-totting, full-body leather cat-suit wearing vampire, Selene, in Underworld: Awakening.

The fourth installment of the Underworld film series, a surprising long-running vampire/werewolf war supernatural action film franchise, Underworld: Awakening is in fact the second sequel in the series as the third offering, Rise of the Lycans is actually the prequel to the original 2003 film.

With Kate Beckinsale returning in her ass-kicking role of the vampire Selene, Underworld: Awakening (the popular protagonist was absent in the prequel film) takes its mythos to the next level with Selene escaping her captors after twelve years and finding herself awaken in a dark future (okay, the film franchise's present ain't that bright anyway) where the war between the Vampires and the Lycans (that's werewolves for the uninformed) has escalated to the surface with mankind's discovery of their existence.

Hit the jump to check out the recently released first trailer from the film (head over to Yahoo! Movies to see the trailer in HD).



While it's good to know that Michael Corvin (the first Lycan/Vampire Hybrid introduced in the first two film and portrayed by Scott Speedman) is still a pivotal part of the plot, it remains to be seen if the character will actually be appearing in the film.

Here's the official synopsis of the film:

UNDERWORLD 4 brings a stunning new dimension to the epic battle between Vampires and Lycans, as the first film in the franchise to shoot in 3D.

Kate Beckinsale, star of the first two films, returns in her lead role as the vampire warrioress Selene, who escapes imprisonment to find herself in a world where humans have discovered the existence of both Vampire and Lycan clans, and are conducting an all-out war to eradicate both immortal species.

An alternate synopsis of the film:

The vampire warrioress Selene, escapes imprisonment to find herself in a world where humans have discovered the existence of both Vampire and Lycan clans and are conducting an all-out war to eradicate both immortal species.

Here's the first set image from the film.

And here are some of the screen capture from the trailer.