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PROMOS: Who is Dr. Whale? ONCE UPON A TIME 2×05 The Doctor Spoiler Promo

So many of us were keeping the secret of Dr. Whale’s Fairytale Land identity on Once Upon a Time, not wanting to ruin the surprise. Too late. The promo for next Sunday’s The Doctor gave it away. Or as David Anders tweeted: “Hello Fans all over the globe & Bulgaria! Tune in next week 2 #OnceuponaTime 4 ‘The Doctor’ The promo ruined it but watch it anyway. Oy vey.”

In late July, an insider let slip Dr. Whale’s Fairytale Land identity to a friend of mine when she was on set in Steveston during the filming of the season two premiere and six weeks later in early September, I was one of the privileged few (along with half-a-dozen visiting Evil Regal fans from all over the U.S.) allowed to watch the filming of Lana Parrilla as a young woman in a tent deep in the woods of Robert Burnaby Park with David Anders as his Fairytale Land character apparently trying to re-animate a male corpse (played by a dummy when I was there).

A week earlier, fans in Steveston as Storybrooke had witnessed the ghostly appearance of Regina’s lost love Daniel in a rainstorm. A Daniel stunt double bore the brunt of the deluge but some are convinced they saw Noah Bean on set that night too.

If you still haven’t figured out Dr. Whale’s Fairytale Land identity and really don’t want to know, please stop reading now.

Read More »PROMOS: Who is Dr. Whale? ONCE UPON A TIME 2×05 The Doctor Spoiler Promo

Jensen Ackles Directs Co-Star Jared Padalecki in Supernatural for Ep. 8×03

It’s deja vu all over again. Supernatural’s first location shoot of season eight is in the same area as the last location shoot of season seven — Burnaby Fraser Foreshore Park opposite Nokia headquarters, which played nefarious Sucracorp in the finale. Even when I heard Supernatural was scouting the location a week or so ago, I didn’t think they would show up here today. But there on a bridge over the Fraser River Path at lunchtime were the Winchester Brothers themselves, aka Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki, accompanied by their bodyguard Clif.

Jensen Ackles is directing the first filmed episode of the season, as he has for the past two. One of the scenes —  for what will be episode three entitled Heartache —  consisted of Jared Padalecki’s Sam Winchester calling out to “Amelia” and then running off the bridge. Played by Liane Balaban, Amelia is expected to become Sam’s first girlfriend [in a long while]. Padalecki filmed the scene on the bridge with a canine co-star, who seemed to be as confused as the rest of us about which tall man in the plaid shirt was Padalecki and which was his standin (that’s Padalecki’s standin in the first photo below)

And here’s Jared Padalecki and his director Jensen Ackles arriving on set to discuss the scene.

Read More »Jensen Ackles Directs Co-Star Jared Padalecki in Supernatural for Ep. 8×03

BIG READ: PERCY JACKSON: SEA OF MONSTERS’ Greek God Adventures in Vancouver

Published June 14, 2002 on Vancouver is Awesome

So Greek gods are running rampant in modern America, waging war and fathering children, like young Percy Jackson who discovers in the first film adaption, The Lightning Thief. that the father he never knew is the Greek god Poseidon. In the second of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians franchise, Percy and pals set out to retrieve the golden fleece in the Sea of Monsters to save their beloved Camp Half-Blood, the summer camp where children of the gods are trained and protected.

It’s been fun to watch some of the filming of the sequel these past two months, especially on the Camp Half-Blood sets in Robert Burnaby Park in Burnaby, built on the tennis courts and in the adjoining woods. Teen fans of Logan Lerman, who stars as Percy Jackson, tracked him all over the city on Twitter and flooded Tumblr with hundreds of photos-with, taken mainly in that park in May.

Joining Logan Lerman in this series of adventures based on Greek mythology are Brandon T. Jackson as his best pal and protector Grover Underwood, a satyr who hides his goat horns under toques and his goat legs with crutches; Alexandra Daddario as Annabeth Chase, daughter of the Greek god Athena; and Douglas Smith as his newly-discovered half-brother Tyson, a very tall, one-eyed cyclops.

As in the first film, the fun for adults is the casting of the Greek god parents. Geek God Nathan Fillion plays Greek god Hermes, the god of thieves, travellers and messengers, dressed as a UPS courier in shorts. Here he is peeking out of the prop The UPS Store set they built in late April at the corner of Pender and Abbott in downtown Vancouver. Percy Jackson and pals cross Pender (dressed as Monroe St NW in the District of Columbia), enter The UPS store and line up at the counter to pick up a package which apparently gives them what they need to head into the Sea of Monsters to find the golden fleece.

For once, the fans gathered near set weren’t clamouring for Logan Lerman. They wanted “Captain Tightpants”, as one Fillion fan yelled out. Another got her Firefly DVD signed as Fillion graciously took time to meet and sign for fans three times during that downtown shoot.

Also new to the sequel is Leven Rambin, last seen on the big screen as Glimmer in box office smash The Hunger Games. She plays Clarisse La Rue, the daughter of Ares, the god of war, who is given the quest to retrieve the golden fleece. Read More »BIG READ: PERCY JACKSON: SEA OF MONSTERS’ Greek God Adventures in Vancouver

Welcome Back Baby – Look What Returns for Supernatural’s Season Seven Finale – Updated

Supernatural has been tough on the Winchester brothers and their fans in season seven, taking away so much of what they love — starting with angel-turned-God Castiel (Misha Collins) in the second episode and then Bobby (Jim Beaver) before Christmas in the heart-breaking episode ten, where the fatally-shot father figure comes out of a coma briefly for a final few moments with his beloved “idjits”. Gradually though, these loved ones are returning, albeit in different forms. Castiel is back but sadly and hilariously cuckoo-bananas after too long in the cage with Lucifer. And Bobby is back but as a ghost and a potentially vengeful one at that.

So that leaves Dean’s beloved black Impala unaccounted for, missing since Halloween when two Leviathans took on the forms of Sam and Dean to drive acoss the country in their own black Impala staging a series of public mass killings in the appropriately-titled episode six, Slash Fiction.

Ever since the Impala went into hiding, I have been looking for it each time I found Supernatural filming on location, scouting the area only to discover yet another in the series of not-the-Impalas. I did enjoy the SMD license plate on the chocolate crap-car-of-the-week though. That was a nice touch.

And let’s not forget the bright orange monstrosity driven in last Friday’s There Will Be Blood.

But enough is enough. Producers assured Jensen Ackles that the Impala would be back and it seems they saved the best for last. At a season finale shoot a month ago, not far from the Supernatural studios, look what I found parked on the road.

It was one of three Impalas on set that day. Further down the road at the Nokia head office dressed as Dick Roman’s latest acquisition Sucrocorp, the second Impala Read More »Welcome Back Baby – Look What Returns for Supernatural’s Season Seven Finale – Updated

YVRShoots Series – Making of THIS MEANS WAR in Vancouver

Published February 27, 2012 on Vancouver is Awesome

Thanks to real bro chemistry between Chris Pine (Star Trek reboot’s Captain Kirk) and Tom Hardy (Bane in upcoming The Dark Night Rises), the bromance in This Means War works much better than the actual romance, which flounders on the premise that Reese Witherspoon’s character is so supremely attractive that these two men would risk their friendship to war over her. Witherspoon is beautiful and an acclaimed actress but she’s miscast in this role. On the other hand, I had no problem with the idea of blending of action, romance and comedy — if done well — in a story of spy versus spy, who use their CIA resources against each other after they discover they’ve fallen for the same woman. But the execution of this movie felt choppy and clumsy in both writing and editing, as if three different movies had been spliced into one.

That might have been the case, judging from the number of Vancouver scenes cut in editing, including the ones I photographed below in Yaletown and North Vancouver’s Lonsdale Quay Market, as well as some at Gastown’s Incendio restaurant. Director McG (in my Yaletown photo with Tom Hardy & Reese Witherspoon) even shot three alternate endings to the romance, including a fun “homoerotic” one of Pine and Hardy in each other’s arms and Witherspoon with nobody — which I might have preferred.

This Means War opens with a spectacular action sequence on the roof of the Bentall 4 tower in Vancouver as Hong Kong. CIA agents and best buds FDR Foster (Chris Pine) and Tuck Hensen (Tom Hardy) are on a mission to stop arms dealer Heinrich, played by Til Schweiger of Inglorious Basterds fame, from acquring a WMD at a fancy hotel rooftop party. Read More »YVRShoots Series – Making of THIS MEANS WAR in Vancouver