The vamp(ire) is back: Kate Beckinsale celebrates her return to the big screen as Selene in stunning new shoot

By Andrea Magrath

Last updated at 12:11 PM on 24th November 2011

She's been off the big screen for over a year now, but Kate Beckinsale is about to be back with a vengeance.

The English beauty, 38, has four new films in the pipeline, the first of which is Underworld: Awakening.

'I've been away for a whole year,' she told Flaunt magazine in a new interview and smouldering photoshoot to promote the film. 'It's been great. I didn't find anything I wanted to do enough to take me away from my kid.'

Yummy mummy: Kate Beckinsale shows off her enviable figure in a smouldering new photo shoot for Flaunt magazine

Her husband, director Len Wiseman, was able to convince her to slip back into the leather catsuit to reprise her role as vampire warrior Selene in the Underworld franchise.

In a stunning black and white shoot, Beckinsale reclines on a lion's head rug in a bejewelled swimsuit, and dons hotpants and a pair of knee-high boots.

She has teamed up with her husband again for the action film, but reveals to the magazine that after they've clocked off for the day, it is all fun and games at home.

English rose: The 38-year-old actress reveals she is really just a kid at heart, constantly pranking her husband Len Wiseman

A self-confessed prankster, Kate says: 'Poor Len. He puts up with a lot. That poor guy does not come home without somebody dropping off the top of a wardrobe at this head.

'When he goes to sleep, there was a whole period of time when I was gluing beards to his face, and moustaches, and bullet holes in his head. I love that kind of stuff.'

After Underworld the actress will also be seen in Contraband, opposite Mark Wahlberg, and the Total Recall remake.

Hiatus: Beckinsale has five films in the pipeline, after taking a year-long break because she says 'I didn't find anything I wanted to do enough to take me away from my kid'

Despite starring in the big-budget latter, which is also directed by Wiseman, Kate gives a surprisingly frank estimation of the influx of remakes in cinemas right now.

'I do think it's a shame that it's hard for directors to get an original idea that wasn't a comic or a remake or wasn't a game or something,' she says. 'I think it's very frustrating for directors in general and actors.

'You're constantly finding yourself having to defend doing a remake when you didn't really want to do one in the first place. If it was up to you, you would be doing your own original sci-fi.'

She certainly didn't mind making another Underworld film though, even if she was in kept in the dark about plans despite being married to the director.

Speaking to Total Film recently, she said: 'I genuinely thought there wouldn’t be another one.

'I’m so obedient and gullible and they said it’s always going to be a trilogy, so when people would ask me if I’m doing another I would always say, "No, there’s not going to be another."

'Plus, I was concerned about how a fourth one for me could be interesting, how it could be different – and the storyline they’ve come up with was really interesting to me.'

for the full feature, buy the December issue of US Flaunt magazine, or visit www.flaunt.com