Hollywood is where I’ve had most of my werewolf encounters but enough about Robin Williams. Let’s explore this particular pack of Tinseltown werewolf as I wanna hear your pick for the alpha male to lead the pack.

Benicio Del Toro has his The Wolfman set for a very romantic Valentine’s Day weekend theatrical release (February 12, 2010) while you’ll have to wait a little longer to see Taylor Lautner’s abs and werewolf if you didn’t see the Twilight Saga’s New Moon in theater as the DVD and Blu-ray are due out late this March.

If you’re really hurtin’ for some lycanthrope cinema I’m sure you can find one of the Underworld films on cable television (if you’re an HBO subscriber then you’re probably watching Michael J. Fox in Teen Wolf as I type) or Hugh Jackman’s Van Helsing in Walmart’s $5 DVD bin. John Landis the very same director of such classic comedies as Animal House, The Blues Brothers, Spies Like Us and ¡Three Amigos! also had a soft spot for the hairy and scary when he first gave us An American Werewolf in London followed by An American Werewolf in Paris (flag his passport already!).

Maybe the most famous actor to howl at the moon was Jack Nicholson in 1994′s Wolf but it was Lon Chaney Jr. that introduced most of us to the werewolf in 1941′s The Wolf Man. Now I know I haven’t mentioned every barking big screen portrayal and personally I’m more of a Cat People type of guy myself (I carry a dog whistle for protection) but who is your favorite big screen werewolf?

Len Wiseman, the man behind Underworld and Live Free or Die Hard,  has signed on to direct and produce an untitled pitch that Fox has just grabbed the rights to.

Details (and screenwriters!) are scarce, but according to THR, “the project is based on an original idea about a group of people who survive the end of the world and the mystery surrounding how they got to that position. The studio is seeking writers for the project.”

Wiseman is currently in limbo at the moment, with his name attached to Schrapnel and Atlantis Rising, but no project in production. Seeing as how this post-apocalyptic project hasn’t even had the details fleshed out, I’d say we’re more likely to see one of those two projects coming to fruition first, or Wiseman stepping in for another director elsewhere.

I have conflicted thoughts about Wiseman. He seems to straddle a line between interesting action director and total studio hack, so I eye every project he’s attached to with caution.

Underworld: Rise of the Lycans has a new trailer and i must say that it stinks to high heavens. While I love Rhona Mitra, she does not compare at all to Kate Beckinsale, and yes I know she plays a different character in the movie. I by no means am speaking about talent in the acting arena.

I must say that up until now I have been a big fan of The Underworld series. A dark look at Vampires and Lycans as we know them with a little Kate Beckinsale. The women I just mentioned is the reason I watched the movies in the first place. She is among the top in my book in terms of “all out hottie” (see photo to the right). With that said what did you think about the trailer? It seems a bit of the same to me.

Underworld: Rise of the Lycans arrives in theatres on January 23, 2009. Click here for HD.