Two weeks from today, Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures preview their upcoming blockbuster films at San Diego Comic-Con on Saturday, July 20th. Godzilla is the one that intrigues me most, having just wrapped three months of filming in Vancouver. As expected, the new Godzilla is a re-imagining of Toho’s iconic Godzilla, but this time it’s “humanity’s scientific arrogance” which creates the radioactive monster and these ones cross the Pacific Ocean to terrorize San Francisco not Tokyo. It’s not clear which cast will be on the panel — Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ken Watanabe, Elizabeth Olsen, Juliette Binoche, David Strathairn or Bryan Cranston — but director Gareth Edwards is expected to screen footage from Vancouver. Whatever is shown, I can’t wait to see it online. The 3D Godzilla reboot is scheduled for release on May 16th next year.
What’s behind the radioactive containment doors? Copyright Legendary Pictures
Vancouver-shot pilots have dominated San Diego Comic-Con’s Preview Night for years, largely because Warner Bros. Television has such a big presence here. 2013 is no exception with pilots Almost Human and The 100 and the New York-shot pilot The Tomorrow People — which has shifted production to Vancouver — all to be screened in Ballroom 20 on Wednesday night, July 17th.
Almost Human — Part-robot human Detective John Kennex and part-human robot Dorian are a buddy cop duo in future Los Angeles, where all cops must partner with androids known as synthetics. The pilot was filmed all over in Vancouver this past March in some familiar Fringe locations. It stars Karl Urban (John Kennex), Michael Ealy (Dorian), Minka Kelly, Mackenzie Crook, Michael Irby and Lili Taylor and is produced by uber-producer J.J. Abrams, Fringe showrunner J.H. Wyman and others. And if you miss the Wednesday night screening, you can catch the pilot at the Almost Human panel on Friday, July 19th, followed by a Q&A with cast and showrunners. The series begins filming in Vancouver after Comic-Con and FOX plans to debut it on Monday nights after the World Series, starting November 4th.
Panel: Friday, July 19th – 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. in Ballroom 20.
King & Maxwell filmed a big scene in Chinatown yesterday of secret-service-agent-turned-private-investigator Sean King (Jon Tenney) driving north on Taylor Street when a “bad guy” in a truck speeds out of Shanghai Alley and rams him. I dropped by in the afternoon when crew shot King (Jon Tenney) rolling out of the front seat and hitting the ground as the “bad guy” fired multiple rounds from his machine gun into the back seat of King’s Lexus, where he expected to find a key witness. Guess he missed the old switcheroo. Later in the early evening, crew filmed close-ups of the “bad guy” opening the door to find a dummy riddled with bullet holes — not the witness. Score: King 1. Bad Guy 0. King and his partner secret-service-agent-turned-private-investigator Michelle Maxwell (Rebecca Romijn) then came round behind the “bad guy” and arrested him.
King & Maxwell wraps filming of its first season of ten episodes this week in Vancouver.
TNT ordered a fourth season of sci-fi summer hit Falling Skies today with [12] new episodes to be filmed in Vancouver under a new showrunner David Eick (Battlestar Galactica). Shot here since the second season, this series about a small band of insurgents fighting against an occupying alien force remains the top summer drama on basic cable in the U.S., averaging almost 6 million weekly viewers after DVR playback is counted.
It’s a family show in a post-apocalyptic setting featuring Tom Mason (Noah Wyle) and his three sons — the eldest Hal (heartthrob Drew Roy), once-harnassed middle son Ben (Connor Jessup) and youngest son Matt (Maxim Knight) — and now one baby daughter with pediatrician Anne Glass (Moon Bloodgood). Other surviving resistance fighters in the 2nd Mass (Boston insurgent group named after the 2nd Massachusetts of the American Revolution) include Captain Weaver (Will Patton), Maggie (Sarah Carter) and frenemy John Pope (Colin Cunningham).