On Long Beach, Vancouver Island. #It has begun. @ApesMovies pic.twitter.com/6AZVzWfJXW — Matt Reeves (@mattreevesLA) October 17, 2015 It has begun. War between Apes and Humans.… Read More »SHOOT: Matt Reeves’s WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES With Andy Serkis, Woody Harrelson & Steve Zahn Films on Long Beach, Vancouver Island
Update: Turns out, the one and only time I saw Zombie Blaine at Meat Cute was for the iZombie season finale. And next season, Blaine… Read More »SHOOT: iZOMBIE’s David Anders & Aleks Paunovic Film at Big Lou’s Butcher Shop in Downtown Eastside
Arctic Air star Adam Beach missed the red carpet coming from the airport and went straight into the Westin Bayhore Hotel but he may have been the only one. The Vancouver-and-Yellowknife-filmed CBC aerial adventure series owned the long media gauntlet for a good half-hour or more with nominated leads Pascale Hutton and Kevin McNulty, nominated supporting actor John Reardon and his American-network-star wife Meghan Ory (Once Upon a Time and Intelligence), nominated supporting actress Emilie Ullerup, nominated supporting actress Carmen Moore, nominated guest actress Chelah Horsdal and nominated guest actor Aleks “the Griz” Paunovic. Lexa Doig, nominated for performances on both Arctic Air and Continuum chose to enter with the futuristic Continuum gang. With so much crossover the two dramas are one seamless show for Vancouver actors, with Continuum starting filming as Arctic Air wraps or vice-versa. Lexa Doig, John Reardon, Stephen Lobo and Brian Markinson are four cast who have roles on both and Pascale Hutton even guest-starred on Continuum in season one as a Carlos hookup and Liber8 murder victim. I convinced Arctic Air showrunner Gary Harvey (below) to come over to the media wall to be photographed by mentioning that Continuum showrunner Simon Barry would be walking the red carpet later.
Pascale Hutton (Krista Ivarson)
Pascale Hutton & Kevin McNulty (TV father-and-daughter Krista and Mel Ivarson).
Read More »LEO AWARDS: ARCTIC AIR Contingent Owns Red Carpet – Updated
Published May 29, 2013 on Vancouver is Awesome
Hometown comedy couple Brent Butt and Nancy Robertson are set to co-host the 15th anniversary of the Leo Awards, celebrating the best of B.C.-made film and television, at the Westin Bayshore Hotel on Saturday, June 8th. Expect more than the usual hijinks with professional comedians as hosts and and a crowd of outstanding homegrown nominees led by Vancouver born-and-bred Jessie James Miller’s feature film Becoming Redwood with 14 nominations, Vancouver-cop-from-the-future series Continuum with 16 nominations and filmed-in-Vancouver-and-Yellowknife aerial adventure series Arctic Air with 14 nominations.. For tickets, click here.
The 1970s era coming-of-age film Becoming Redwood‘s 14 nominations include well-deserved director and writing nods for Jesse James Miller and performance nods for Ryan Grantham as the young golf-obsessed long-haired title character Redwood; Jennifer Copping (Miller’s wife) as Redwood’s mother; Chad Willett (producer) as Redwood’s draft-dodging, pot-dealing father; Derek Hamilton as Redwood’s red-neck stepfather Arnold and Scott Hylands as Arnold’s basement-dwelling elderly father Earl. Miller shot the Vancouver International Film Festival’s most popular Canadian feature in rural Langley for 24 days in the late spring of 2011. By contrast, Random Acts of Romance, the only other motion picture nominee I’ve seen on screen, filmed in several downtown and East Van locations like the Waldorf Hotel, as befits a movie whose tagline is “Sex, Abduction, Stalking and You Thought Romance Was Dead” about interconnected Vancouverites. Director Katrin Bowen is nominated for the twisted romcom, as is Sonja Bennett for her performance as a wacky stalker.
In the television category, Continuum dominates with 16 nominations for its first hit season, including nods for creator and UBC grad Simon Barry for his season finale script End Times about time traveller Kiera Cameron’s failure to stop “terrorist” group Liber8 from blowing up a downtown tower, a definitive moment in her corporations-rule-the-world future. Continuum digitally-imploded an Arthur Erickson-designed tower on West Georgia on screen and then filmed the aftermath on a blast-and-rubble set at CBC Vancouver.
Read More »LEO AWARDS: Brent Butt & Nancy Robertson Host Leo Awards on June 8th
Last night’s Leo Awards nominations, celebrating the best of B.C.-made film and television, favour Jesse James Miller’s 70s-era coming-of-age film Becoming Redwood, Vancouver-cop-from-the-future TV series Continuum and northern adventure TV series Arctic Air. The many tweets of congratulations to all the nominees today are a great way to recognize B.C.’s creative talent ahead of tomorrow’s provincial election. So please go vote and as the hashtag says, #SaveBCFilm.
Becoming Redwood‘s 14 nominations include well-deserved director and writing nods for Vancouver-born-and-raised Jesse James Miller and performance nods for Ryan Grantham as the young golf-obsessed long-haired title character Redwood; Jennifer Copping (Miller’s wife) as Redwood’s mother; Chad Willett (producer) as Redwood’s draft-dodging, pot-dealing father; Derek Hamilton as Redwood’s red-neck stepfather Arnold and Scott Hylands as Arnold’s basement-dwelling elderly father Earl. Miller shot the Vancouver International Film Festival’s most popular Canadian feature in rural Langley for 24 days in the late spring of 2011.
Related: Jesse James Miller’s Becoming Redwood Opens at International Village
In the television category, Continuum dominates with 16 nominations, including nods for creator and UBC grad Simon Barry for his season one finale script End Times and for performances by Richard Harmon, Brian Markinson, Jennifer Spence and Liber8 “terrorist” Lexa Doig. Lead cop Rachel Nichols is not nominated but she is American and not considered a BC actor, even though she lives here for half-a-year each season and owns Vancouver Canucks season tickets (what more do you need?)
Over at Arctic Air, bona fide BC actors Kevin McNulty and Pascale Hutton are nominated for their lead performances on the filmed-in-Vancouver-and-Yellowknife aerial adventure series, two of 14 nominations for the CBC show. Read More »LEO AWARDS: Film BECOMING REDWOOD & TV series CONTINUUM & ARCTIC AIR Top 2013 Nominations
Published January 9th, 2013 on Vancouver is Awesome A wildfire breaks out on the season two debut of Arctic Air tonight at 9 p.m. on… Read More »BIG READ: Vancouver as Yellowknife & Calgary for ARCTIC AIR’s 2nd Season
Published January 31, 2012 on Vancouver is Awesome
Wow. The CBC is kicking simulcast-American-show butt this winter with its made-for-Canadians-by-Canadians dramas, comedies, unscripted and current affairs programs, led by set-in-Yellowknife aerial adventure series Arctic Air and set-in-St. John’s father-and-son private detective series Republic of Doyle. Both dramas premiered in the Million-Canadian-Viewers-Plus Club earlier this month and remain there after three episodes apiece, although Arctic Air dipped below a million viewers for its second outing before climbing back up.
While nothing is going to touch this country’s love for CTV’s simulcast of American comedy hit The Big Bang Theory, CBC shows like Dragons’ Den, the Rick Mercer Report, new comedy series Mr. D. and a rejuvenated Marketplace have all hit the Million-Plus Club and are winning or placing well in their time blocks. As is Global’s new hit mini-series Bomb Girls, filmed in Toronto. So what happened to CTV, proud home of Corner Gas, during this resurgence of homegrown shows? Well our most financially-successful Canadian TV network has no Canadian dramas or comedies on its prime time 2011-12 schedule so far although it remains a giant in covering Canadian news and sports.
Why are CBC’s dramas so popular this winter? Just as The Beachcombers represented B.C.’s West Coast to the world for almost twenty years, Arctic Air and Republic of Doyle showcase a specific region of Canada with adventure and humour, plus something new — sexiness. Feel free to argue, but Bruno Gerussi with his giant medallion on his overly hairy chest on The Beachcombers did not exude sexiness like today’s CBC leading men — Adam Beach of Arctic Air and Allan Hawco of Republic of Doyle.
Adam Beach has said he likes that the Arctic Air creators made his character Bobby Martin a “player”, especially because — in a sweet twist — Bobby’s first hookup on returning to Yellowknife is Frontier Hotel receptionist Candi played by Leah Gibson, who became his real-life girlfriend. Gibson is on Beach’s right in the photo below (the pair even kissed for the cameras). And Allan Hawco has been juggling dozens of women for two seasons and counting as swaggering Jake Doyle on Republic of Doyle in Newfoundland. Last week’s episode ended with his character in a hot kiss with his remarried ex-wife.
I was fortunate to be invited by the CBC to the red carpet premiere of Arctic Air at the Vogue Theatre on January 10th and an Actors Studio-style session at the Vancouver Film School with Republic of Doyle star and Newfoundland native Allan Hawco a week later.
It all began late last November when I got the chance to meet the stars of CBC’s 2012 Winter Season out in Aldergrove Read More »BIG READ: CBC Dramas ARCTIC AIR & REPUBLIC OF DOYLE Soar
