In a weekend that had tons of free-range beasts, moviegoers had the choice of watching Sam Worthington hang out on a ledge, Vampires take on genetic Werewolves, or Liam Neeson just take on wolves. And it looks like the man and his “particular set of skills” continued to dominate the hearts of men and women everywhere, by bringing The Grey to the #1 spot this weekend with an estimated $20 Million.

Close behind the dramatic man vs. beast tale was the fourth installment of the “Kate Beckinsale in leather” films known as Underworld. Not a terrible second weekend for the flick, as it raked in $12 Million, just halfing its take from last weekend. In the third spot this weekend, Katherine Heigl continues to make mens’ stomaches turn with her One for the Money ”comedy”, which only made $11.7 Million this weekend.

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The fourth installment of the Underworld franchise tried to bring the series back to it’s bread and butter, Kate Beckinsale in skin-tight leather. That was seemingly all you need as the film bounced back from the disappointing third installment and stands tall with a similar start to that of the first two movies.

The estimated twenty-five and a half million dollar haul puts Awakening on pace to top the over all totals of the first and third movies, whether or not it can catch the series peak, set by Evolution, will depend on it’s hold next weekend. The per theater average and total screen numbers are comparable to the second film which performed the best up to this point in the series.

Coming in at an impressive nineteen million is Red Tails, the Lucasfilm tale of the famed Tuskegee Airman. The movie surpassed many expectations and out paced other fighter pilot films by a solid margin. Much like Underworld: Awakening, the critical reception of Red Tails has not been kind, so it will need strong word of mouth to maintain momentum into next weekend.

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Say what you will about Mark Wahlberg but his movies are often entertaining and he does know his way around an action sequence. Case in point is his latest upcoming film Contraband.

In the action thriller, which is based on the 2008 Icelandic film Reykjavic-Rotterdam, Wahlberg plays a security guard trying to go straight who must return to his old life of high-stakes smuggling to settle a family member’s debt with a ruthless former boss. Naturally, things don’t go exactly as planned and, you can bet, stuff ends up blowing up.

Starring with Wahlberg are Giovanni Ribisi, Kate Beckinsale, Lukas Haas and Ben Foster. Check out the trailer after the jump.

Look for Contraband to hit theaters early next year.

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We all know how tame and watered down vampires have become these days. Sure, we’ll get some cool moments in True Blood when fangs are popped and blood is drawn, but that’s only in between the other 50 minutes of romance, sex and melodrama. And let’s not even begin to think Twilight has any kind of vampire bad ass moments.

The one constant is that the Underworld series has always looked good, and had enough guns and leather to come across as a Matrix spinoff. So why wouldn’t we get another sequel amidst the vampire/werewolf hype happening today? Good news, we do.

The premise is a bit tame, but we don’t expect much of a story when the first thing we see in the trailer is a nude Kate Beckinsale.

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.

Of course, you’ll get the expected lines like “something else escaped” and “it’s more powerful than anything we’ve ever fought”. Why? Because why not. Leather + machine guns + Vampires = a good time.

Check it all out in the trailer after the jump. See Underworld 4: Awakening 3D in theaters January 20th.

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Not that we are in any way endorsing the reboot/remake of Total Recall but with two hot actresses now joining the cast, we have to at least mention it. So, here it is. With Colin Farrell already taking over the role originated by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the film and Bryan Cranston onboard as the evil nemesis, the next question has always been who would be playing the female leads?

Well, now we know. Kate Beckinsale has officially been cast as Lori, the bitchy wife of Douglas Quaid (Farrell) in the “real” world, while Jessica Biel will play sleazy and demure Melina, the woman he meets in his “other” life as a spy. The roles were played by Sharon Stone and Rachel Ticotin in the 1990 original.

In addition to the women, Heat Vision says Bill Nighy has landed the part of Quatto, the leader of the resistance movement. So, with Beckensale and Nighy in place that’s quite an Underworld reunion director Len Wiseman’s got going on. Oh well, he is in charge and if my wife was that hot I would probably cast her in my movies too.

I do have a question about Quatto though. Will he be a mutant and will he lead a resistance? According to reports, the new version of the story will not take place on Mars like Philip K. Dick’s original or the 1990 film.

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You might have expected this considering her husband, Len Wiseman, is the director. However, news has come out that Kate Beckinsale has been offered one of the lead female roles opposite Colin Farrell in the Sony Pictures remake/reboot of Total Recall.

According to the report, Beckensale would play Lori, the role made famous by Sharon Stone in the original. In that film, Lori is the happy wife of Douglas Quaid (Arnold Schwarzenegger ) who, after Quaid begins to discover things are not what they seem, changes into someone who tries to kill him.

The other main female role of Melina (played in the original by Rachel Ticotin) is also reportedly still up for grabs with Eva Mendes and Rosario Dawson as the apparent front runners. Of those two I think I would prefer Dawson, although Mendes wouldn’t be a bad choice either.

In case you’re not familiar with the story of the original Total Recall film, it’s based on Philip K. Dick’s story “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale” and centers on Quaid, a seemingly unsophisticated construction worker, who is haunted by a recurring dream of going to Mars.

He buys a literal dream vacation from a company called Rekall Inc., which sells implanted memories. It turns out he is a freedom fighter from Mars who has been relocated to Earth, and he must restore order, and reverse the corrupt influence that commercial powers had over the red planet.

We don’t know if the new film will follow that storyline as well but you can imagine it will be similar. Look for the new, improved Total Recall to hit theaters in August of 2012.

Vampires may be yesterday’s Zombies, but that doesn’t mean they still don’t look cool while wearing leather and killing werewolves. Luckily enough, that means it’s time for another installment of the Underworld series.

There was a nasty rumor that Kate Beckinsale wouldn’t return for this sequel a while back, but that was immediately quashed. Here’s what we can expect to see from the plot, courtesy of Bloody Disgusting.

“After being held in a coma-like state for fifteen years, vampire Selene (Kate Beckinsale) learns that she has a fourteen-year-old vampire/Lycan hybrid daughter, Nissa, and when she finds her they must stop BioCom from creating super Lycans that will kill them all.”

So basically, this is Kill Bill with leather-bound vampires and scary werewolves. We aren’t complaining, but do they think this was an original idea? Let’s hope so, as Sheild writer John Hlavin and comic favorite J. Michael Straczynski are taking on the script.

Catch Underworld 4: New Dawn in theaters in both 3D and 2D on January 20th, 2012.

Welcome to this week’s On the Radar where we delve into all corners of the entertainment, tech and geek Internets for news, views and whatnot that may have escaped our regular coverage this week. Let is know if we missed something interesting. Otherwise, on to the links!

• You asked for it, (or maybe you didn’t). Either way, here’s the list of the Top 10 Most Ridiculous Character-Branded Products.

• If you find yourself asking if a poster would be too nerdy to put in your room…Chances are you probably know the answer.

• If you caught last night’s Community, then you’re most definitely going to want to go back and read the Twittersodes leading up to the airing. Trust us.

• In prepping for his epically animated Owl Fighting movie, Zack Snyder admits that he had people dress up in owl suits to choreograph the fight scenes.

• Katy Perry recorded a spoof of her song and sang it alongside Elmo on Sesame Street. The song was immediately pulled from the episode before airing. What’s the world coming to when a girl can’t sing about kissing other girls on a show with Muppets?

• A student dressed like The Hulk smashed a car and is now getting in trouble for it. The real crime? The fact that there wasn’t a camera rolling the entire time.

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2010 is in full swing and some really great movies are hitting store shelves this week for the first time and for the first time on Blu-ray. This week’s releases include Gamer, Magnolia, Boogie Nights, Che, Damages, the complete run of ABC’s canceled too soon Defying Gravity and the Blu-ray release of Whiteout with Kate Beckinsale (pictured above).

Check out this week’s releases:

Movies

According to Greta ~ Hilary Duff, Ellen Burstyn (DVD)

Boogie Nights ~ Mark Wahlberg, Heather Graham, Burt Reynolds, Julianne Moore (Blu-ray)

Bourne Supremacy (Single-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo) ~ Matt Damon, Brian Cox, Karl Urban (Blu-ray)

Bourne Ultimatum (Single-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo) ~ Matt Damon, David Strathairn, Scott Glenn (Blu-ray)

Che (Criterion Collection) ~ Benicio del Toro (Blu-ray)

Gamer ~ Gerard Butler, Amber Valetta, Michael C. Hall, Kyra Sedgwick (DVD and Blu-ray)

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We’ve been anticipating the arrival of the film based on Greg Rucka and Steve Lieber’s graphic novel Whiteout for some time now. Previously, we’ve had some info to share with you about the film, including two trailers and an interview with Lieber about his latest project, Underground, where we also talk a bit about the film.

Now, thanks to the MySpace page of Trailer Park, we’ve got the brand new poster for Whiteout to bring you today. This one features a large Kate Beckinsale close up looking pretty great and also very cold. To be honest, I kinda like some of the earlier posters a bit better but at least this one features more Kate, which is never a bad thing.

The movie, which tells the story of U.S. Marshall Carrie Steko (Beckinsale) investigating the first murder ever to take place in Antarctica, is directed by Dominic Sena and co-stars Gabriel Macht, Columbus Short, Alex O’Loughlin, Shawn Doyle and Tom Skerritt. It hits theaters on September 11.

Click through to check out the brand new poster.

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The latest trailer for the Warner Bros. thriller Whiteout surfaced on IGN today. The graphic novel adaptation stars Kate Beckinsale as US Marshall Carrie Stetko, who is investigating Antarctica’s first murder. The film is helmed by Dominic Sena and also stars Gabriel Macht, Columbus Short, Alex O’Loughlin, Shawn Doyle and Tom Skerritt.

This teaser will seem familiar to fans, as most of the material from the first trailer remains intact. However, this version gives viewers who may not be familiar with the source material a greater understanding of the world Stetko inhabits and what she must do before the freezing winter plunges the continent into darkness.

Whiteout hits theaters September 11. Check out the trailer after the jump.

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Even though filming was completed almost two years ago, the trailer for Whiteout has finally been released. The film, based on the Eisner Award winning graphic novel written by Greg Rucka and drawn by Steve Lieber, stars Kate Beckinsale as U.S. Marshall Carrie Stetko. Stetko is at the remote base of McMurdo investigating the first murder ever to take place in Antarctica. A location so remote, that its described in the trailer as “the most isolated landmass on the planet.”

Of course, while Beckinsale’s character investigates the murder, she comes to realize a greater conspiracy may be at work. With the help of The Spirit‘s Gabriel Macht, who plays another agent investigating the same murder, she must unravel the mystery before McMurdo is plunged into six months of wintery darkness.

As a big fan of the source material, I’m glad to be finally seeing the trailer for this film. Seeing as how it was finished almost two years ago, I was beginning to wonder if it would ever see the light of day. The trailer makes the film look pretty good so I’m not sure why it took so long to get released. Of course, a good trailer isn’t always an indicator of a good film. But with Whiteout finally getting a release date, we’ll get to know for sure soon enough.

Check out the trailer after the break.

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