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Aldergrove

WEEK: January 28 – February 3, 2013

PROMO: BATES MOTEL “A Boy’s Best Friend is His Mother” Poster

Psycho prequel Bates Motel is expected to wrap filming in Vancouver early this coming week after spending four days shooting its season finale on its spooky Psycho replica motel and house set in Aldergrove from Monday to Thursday..

Related: Psycho replica motel and house set in Aldergrove.

On Friday, A&E shared a creepy new poster and teaser with Entertainment Weekly’s Inside TV. In the Motherly Love teaser, the camera slowly zooms in like a voyeur on teenage Norman (Freddie Highmore) and his possessive mother Norma (Vera Farigma) sitting side-by-side on a bed. You want to scream, Get a Room!, except they’re already in one and this is a mother and son. Is this the relationship which turns young Norman into the killer who stuffed his mother in the classic Alfred Hitchcock horror film? Read More »PROMO: BATES MOTEL “A Boy’s Best Friend is His Mother” Poster

WEEK: January 7-13, 2013

  • Sunday, January 13th – Once Upon a Time 2×12 The Outsider has Rumple finding a way to cross the town border without losing his memory of his son Bae, Hook stealing Bae’s cloak,  a Rumple vs Hook showdown and then a big twist involving Rumple’s beloved Belle.
  • Sunday, January 13th – CTV airs a promo for Vancouver detective series Motive during the Golden Globes with the tagline: The Murder is Just the Beginning. Debuts on February 3rd after the Superbowl on CTV.
  • Sunday, January 13th – Cult panel at the Television Critics Association (TCA) winter press tour, with cast Matt Davis, Jessica Lucas, Robert Knepper and Alona Tal and Farscape creator Rockne O’Bannon. Debuts February 19th on The CW.
  • Sunday, January 13th – The CW president Mark Pedowitz says new version of Vancouver-filmed pilot The Selection still in contention for pilot order. Tells TCA winter press tour that he loves the new script.
  • Friday, January 11th – Fringe 5×11 The Boy Must Live – the third-to-last episode features naked Walter in deprivation tank and father-son bonding between Walter and Peter and between September and his son, the child Observer! Oh, and someone must die for the plan to work.
  • Friday, January 11th – Arrow Fraturday: star Stephen Amell steals a motorcyle in a scene at Portal Park as news breaks of his Christmas wedding to longtime girlfriend Cassandra Jean; his stunt double rides the motorcycle down the stairs at Oceanic Plaza and over a prop Starling City cab into prop traffic on West Hastings. Arrow crew then moves to underground parking at the Vancouver Convention Centre to film overnight scenes until Saturday morning.
  • Friday, January 11th – Supernatural Fraturday: films overnight again inside Century House in downtown Vancouver.
  • Friday, January 11th – City releases promo image of  sitcom Package Deal, featuring Randal Edwards, Julia Voth, Harland Williams and Jay Malone.
  • Thursday, January 10th – Sitcom Package Deal tapes in front of live studio audience in Burnaby.
  • Thursday, January 10th – Once Upon a Time films at Deer Lake Park with Charming, Snow & Henry on set.
  • Thursday, January 10th – Arrow films at the PNE
  • Thursday, January 10th – Supernatural films inside Century House in downtown Vancouver.
  • Thursday, January 10th – Red Widow panel at TCA winter press tour. Debuts March 3rd on ABC.
  • Thursday, January 10th – News via @Lemon_Buzz that feature film Ninja Turtles closed its Vancouver production office and opened a NYC production office = Vancouver loses another feature film.
  • Thurday, January 10th – Premier Christy Clark’s BC Jobs Plan boosts several industries but not our declining film & TV biz. Click on the SAVE BC FILM petition and sign it to let her know the cost to the province of losing film & TV productions to places with better tax credits.
  • Wednesday, January 9th – Fringe showrunner Joel Wyman and cast Lance Reddick present early screening Read More »WEEK: January 7-13, 2013

BATES MOTEL Opens for Business on March 18th on A&E

Contemporary Psycho prequel series Bates Motel is back filming on its spooky Psycho replica motel and house set in Aldergrove today, a motel that officially opens for business on March 18th.
A&E announced the premiere date last Friday ahead of a Bates Motel-themed luncheon and panel at the Winter Television Critics Association (TCA) press tour in Pasadena. The 10-episode serialized season, which wraps filming in Vancouver late this month, is a present-day reimagining of the 1960 Alfred Hitchcock horror classic Psycho not a homage, showrunner Carleton Cuse told critics. This psychological thriller focuses on Freddie Highmore’s teenage version of future serial killer Norman Bates. living in present-day White Pine Bay, Oregon, and explores the dark backstory of  his relationship with his unhinged mother, Vera Farmiga’s Norma Bates, as he approaches his evil destiny.  Or “How I Stuffed My Mother”, as Daniel Fienberg from HitFix.com reportedly joked in the session.

WEEK: November 12-18, 2012

  • Sunday, November 18th – Once Upon a Time pre-empted by American Music Awards. New episode 2×08, Into the Deep, airs next Sunday.
  • Sunday, November 18th – The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn 2 boasts a US$349 million global opening weekend via Deadline.com.
  • Saturday, November 17th – Bates Motel films at the HI Vancouver Jericho Beach Hostel.
  • Friday, November 16th – Red Widow wraps filming of its first order of eight episodes set to premiere early next year on ABC.
  • Friday, November 16h – On Fringe‘s ep. 5×07 Joshua Jackson’s Peter tracks Observer lieutenants on Hastings West and Blair Brown returns as silver-haired Nina Sharp in her wheelchair filmed on the Olympic Village seawall.
  • Friday, November 16th – Fringe films pickup scenes with the panelled blue mini-van in Chinatown.
  • Friday, November 16th – Battlestar Galactica prequel Blood and Chrome with Ben Cotton – third & fourth webisodes online.
  • Friday, November 16th – Mr. Cranky Pants lives. CBC releases season two teaser for Yellowknife and Vancouver-filmed Arctic Air which moves to Wednesday nights in its second season next year.
  • Thursday, November 15 – Midnight screenings of blockbuster The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn 2. which was filmed in Vancouver, Squamish and Whistler.
  • Thusrday, November 15th – Arrow films police chase & shootout featuring Seth Gabel as season one’s big bad Vertigo on the second level of the Front Street parkade in New Westminster.
  • Thursday, November 15th – Sitcom Package Deal films its fourth episode in front of a live studio audience in Burnaby.
  • Thursday, November 15th – Bates Motel films on its permanent motel and Bates house set in Aldergrove, a replica of the Alfred Hitchcock set from his classic horror film Psycho.
  • Thursday, November 15th –  Vancouver detective series Motive films out in Aldergrove.
  • Thusrday, November 15th – Red Widow films near Victory Square.
  • Wednesday, November 14th – Misha Collins’s Castiel returns on Supernatural 8×07 & meets with Amanada Tapping (Stargate/Sanctuary)’s angel Naomi. Watch your back Cas.
  • Wednesday, November 14th – The Royal Flush Gang robs Starling Trust Bank on Arrow‘s ep. 1×06 filmed in the Read More »WEEK: November 12-18, 2012

BATES MOTEL Set in Aldergrove is Spitting Image of Alfred Hitchcock’s Set in Psycho – Updated

Update: Bates Motel set. September 2016. Production built the roof for the second season.

bamo-final13

The Bates Motel set out in Aldergrove on 272nd Street near the U.S. border is the spitting image of the motel set in Alfred Hitchcock’s horror classic Psycho, except for the missing top of the Bates house which will be CGIed in post-production. When I arrived mid-afternoon to see A&E’s upcoming series filming, only Mike Vogel’s deputy Sheriff seemed to be inside one of the motel rooms. When he crossed the road from set on his way to craft services I apologized for misidentifying him in yesterday’s blogpost about the Steveston shoot on the fishing boat.

If I’d stayed in Aldergrove I could have seen the Bates house on the hill lit up for a night shoot by a light on a hoist near 272nd Street and a balloon light in the garden  It would have looked scary as hell but I had to start heading back to Vancouver. This set is such a long way out that this will have to be my one and only visit unfortunately.

A&E’s contemporary Psycho prequel Bates Motel  focuses on a younger version of Psycho movie killer Norman Bates (Freddie Highmore) in present-day Oregon and explores his relationship with his unhinged mother (Vera Farmiga) as he approaches his evil destiny.  Lost co-showrunner Carlton Cuse penned most of the 10 episodes which are  described as a cross between Twin Peaks and Smallville.

[Update: At the start of filming the motel sign was Seafairer Motel as in the original Psycho but changed to Bates Motel once this reimagined Bates mother and son bought it]

Read More »BATES MOTEL Set in Aldergrove is Spitting Image of Alfred Hitchcock’s Set in Psycho – Updated

ARCTIC AIR Trio Talk about First Hit Season on CBC

How much does the CBC love its new hit drama series Arctic Air? Heaps. At the CBC upfronts earlier this month in Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary to unveil next season’s schedule to advertisers and media, host George Stroumboulopoulos introduced the Arctic Air actors first in the opening Prime Time segment, ahead of the Dragon’s Den Dragons.

And for good reason — Arctic Air was the most-watched debut season for a CBC drama series in fifteen years, averaging just under a million viewers (965,000) for its first ten episodes. I watched all ten and even live-tweeted the finale in mid-March, along with so many other Canadians. Arctic Air is a classic adventure series — filmed mainly on permanent sets in Aldergrove with most exterior scenes filmed in Yellowknife  — where the main trio are often in peril. It started with Bobby Martin (Adam Beach)’s return to Yellowknife to help keep alive the maverick airline co-founded by his dead father and the notorious curmudgeon Mel Ivarson (Kevin McNulty). There he reunites with Mel’s daughter Krista (Pascale Hutton), a former flame and hot-shot pilot. In the season finale cliffhanger, much of it filmed near Clinton  in B.C.’s Cariboo country, Mel has internal bleeding after helping the other survivors of a plane crash.  What? “Mr. Crankypants better be with us next season,” I tweeted.

Read More »ARCTIC AIR Trio Talk about First Hit Season on CBC