Kate Beckinsale's 'Whiteout' Gets a Release Date

I honestly can't tell you why Kate Beckinsale isn't one of the biggest female stars in the world. She's always got to be in the argument of the most beautiful actresses in the world, and it's not like she's an absolute stiff on screen. I mean, Cameron Diaz is a much bigger name and I don't think she's in Beckinsale's league in either category. But Beckinsale has had her moments, certainly, although I don't think her career was helped as much by Pearl Harbor as we would've suspected before its release. Sure, the Underworld movies have treated her well, but the second one is pretty bad. And then you throw Van Helsing, one of the worst movies of its kind, and Serendipity on her resume, and you realize that a lot of the blame falls on her for picking bad roles. Still, I think she deserves better. Even her good films get ignored. I'm hopeful that Whiteout will be a bigger hit for her, but primarily because I like the premise. It's a murder mystery set in Antarctica, and Beckinsale plays the U.S. Marshal charged with finding out whodunit before the continent goes dark for six months. I'm not in love with Dominic Sena calling the shots on it, but from what I'm told, the graphic novel on which it's based is pretty detailed, and the character Beckinsale plays, Carrie Stetko was compared to Dirty Harry by Artbomb, so there's certainly reason to be optimistic. Now, Shock Till You Drop tells us that there's another reason to be optimistic: It should have a pretty good weekend to mark its debut. Competing against the quirky-looking animated flick Igor and a Samuel L. Jackson thriller (Lakeview Terrace), Whiteout will now open on September 19th. That's a pretty good time to unveil it; if you go another month later, it will be overwhelmed by the first push of awards season, and you don't want to go a month back into the summer path of Tropic Thunder and others. I wouldn't say it's one of my five most anticipated movies of the year, but I see lots and lots of potential.