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SHOOT: Karl Urban & Minka Kelly Film TV Pilot ALMOST HUMAN in Vancouver’s Business District

J.J. Abrams and Fringe showrunner Joel Wyman’s TV pilot Almost Human (formerly Human) is filming in downtown Vancouver’s Business District on West Hastings Street, transformed into a futuristic Los Angeles, for the second day in a row this weekend. Stars Karl Urban (Star Trek’s Bones) and Minka Kelly (Friday Night Lights) are on set as Los Angeles police officers at the crime scene of yesterday’s armoured vehicle heist.

Related: TV pilot Almost Human Films Armoured Car Heist in Vancouver’s Business District

Read More »SHOOT: Karl Urban & Minka Kelly Film TV Pilot ALMOST HUMAN in Vancouver’s Business District

SHOOT: TV Pilot ALMOST HUMAN Films Armoured Car Heist in Vancouver’s Business District

Fringe showrunner Joel Wyman’s new TV pilot Almost Human (formerly Human) for FOX pays homage to Fringe in so many ways. The production uses many of the former Vancouver Fringe crew as well as its production signs BELLY. Some of the set dressing looks familiar too, but with a twist. Almost Human is about a futuristic Los Angeles where police officers are paired with android partners and stars Karl Urban (Star Trek’s Bones) as one of the human cops and Michael Ealy (Underworld Awakening) as an android cop. Neither actor was spotted in the downtown business district for the armoured car heist although they were on set. Almost Human turned the Guiness Tower into Division Tower and Oceanic Plaza into West Plaza and hired thirty or so PAs (production assistants) to control the set and 80 costumed extras to work as background for the heist with loud prop gunfire. Almost Human is a big for a pilot. Huge, in fact. Almost Human’s second unit filmed up on Galardi Way on Burnaby Mountain at the same time as the downtown shoot. The heist drew a crowd, who lined the Hastings pedestrian bridge to watch the action, leaving only enough room for the camera crew on the bridge.

Read More »SHOOT: TV Pilot ALMOST HUMAN Films Armoured Car Heist in Vancouver’s Business District

SHOOT: John Stamos Films NBC Pilot VICTOR at St. Andrew Wesley United Church Downtown

Victor (formerly I Am Victor) had camera crews on two corners of the downtown Burrard and Nelson intersection  last night to film a scene of John Stamos (ER/Full House) as a high-powered divorce attorney waiting on the north steps of St. Andrew Wesley United Church for a young woman coming out of the church and then walking with her to the main entrance where they sit together on the steps. Later crew set up on the sidewalk in front of the main entrance to film closeups of Stamos talking with the young woman. It was a big shoot for the NBC pilot with lots of people stopping and staring throughout the evening until the film lights went out around 11 p.m. and Stamos left.

Read More »SHOOT: John Stamos Films NBC Pilot VICTOR at St. Andrew Wesley United Church Downtown

SHOOT: John Stamos Films NBC Pilot VICTOR in Downtown Vancouver

Victor (formerly I Am Victor)  crew brought their own jungle today to film some brief exterior scenes of lead John Stamos walking in and out of the front door of Pender Medi Spa in downtown Vancouver. Most of the action takes place inside the spa with a night shoot at another location. Stamos seems perfectly cast to play a high-powered divorce attorney in an NBC pilot from the producers of White Collar. The Full House and ER vet can be spotted around town over the next two weeks and hopefully will be back in the summer if the pilot is picked up to series.

Read More »SHOOT: John Stamos Films NBC Pilot VICTOR in Downtown Vancouver

SHOOT: Vancouver as Toronto for MOTIVE 1×06

CTV promoted Vancouver crime drama Motive from Sunday nights to Thursday nights this week, with downtown Vancouver playing Toronto in the sixth episode of the whydunit  The killer in Detour is a Toronto police officer named Barry Ketchum (Aidan Devine) who commits the murder on the west coast and is tracked back to Ontario by Vancouver homicide detective Angie Flyn (Kristin Lehman).  Crew filmed a scene on Homer Street last December of Ketchum arriving home from the airport in a prop Toronto taxi with the Victorian Hotel as his Toronto apartment building. And filmed other scenes of Detective Flyn confronting Ketchum inside Belkin House as his Toronto police station. Add a few green screens of the CN Tower and Motive did a credible job of faking Toronto in Vancouver.

Read More »SHOOT: Vancouver as Toronto for MOTIVE 1×06

SHOOT: Stephen Amell & Katie Cassidy Do ARROW Flashbacks in Coal Harbour for 1×21 – Updated

Why are Oliver Queen & Laurel Lance kissing? It’s flashback time in the [third-to-last} episode of Arrow’s hit first season. I hope this isn’t Laurel (Katie Cassidy) saying goodbye to her Ollie (Stephen Amell) before he heads off on the Queen’s Gambit with his Dad and Laurel’s sister. Was younger Oliver really such a cad?

Update: Yes he was. Oliver makes a call to Laurel’s sister Sarah when he spots Laurel – “Hey Sarah. You here? You might want to circle around the block a few times. Your sister just showed up.”

Read More »SHOOT: Stephen Amell & Katie Cassidy Do ARROW Flashbacks in Coal Harbour for 1×21 – Updated

SHOOT: Erik Knudsen & Ian Tracey Film CONTINUUM S2 at Catch-122 Restaurant Downtown

Crazy-man-from-the-future Jason (Ian Tracey) introduced on Continuum at the end of the first season clearly plays a bigger role in the second one. But in the same clothes? And with the same mannerisms? Today he met with young tech genius Alec Sadler (Erik Knudsen) not Vancouver-cop-from-the-corporate-future Kiera Cameron (Rachel Nichols) at the Catch-122 restaurant on West Hastings Street. Maybe not so crazy?

Read More »SHOOT: Erik Knudsen & Ian Tracey Film CONTINUUM S2 at Catch-122 Restaurant Downtown

SHOOT: Chyler Leigh Films WINDOW WONDERLAND at Holt Renfrew Downtown – Updated

Chyler Leigh shocked Grey’s Anatomy fans when her character Lexie Grey was killed in the season eight finale of the hospital drama. Here she is alive and well, but looking quite different from Lexie with her Anne Hathaway-style cut. Leigh filmed scenes for upcoming Window Wonderland outside upscale Holt Renfrew dressed as McGuire’s in New York on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Production caused stop-and-stare foot traffic on Dunsmuir in downtown Vancouver for all three days. The TV movie started filming on Friday and goes to March 25th. Leigh’s next project is a starring role in the NBC plane crash comedy pilot Holding Patterns.

Read More »SHOOT: Chyler Leigh Films WINDOW WONDERLAND at Holt Renfrew Downtown – Updated

Russian Mob Drama RED WIDOW’s Two-Hour Debut on ABC Tonight

Are we ready for a female version of Tony Soprano (The Sopranos) or Walter White (Breaking Bad) on American broadcast TV? Red Widow is about San Francisco widow Marta Walraven (Radha Mitchell) forced to replace her husband in the Russian mob after his murder in order to repay his debt and protect her family — son Gabriel (Sterling Beaumon),daughter Natalie (Erin Moriarty) and son Boris (Jakob Salvati).

Her husband was killed by the mafia. In order to erase a [$1.5  million] debt and protect her family, she is willing to work with his killers. How far would you go? For one mother, the only way out is deeper in. No time to mourn.

That debt is owed to crime lord Nicholae Schiller (Goran Visnjic). “I don’t play games Mrs. Walraven. Ever.”  – Schiller

ABC/BOB D’AMICO

By the end of the first set of eight episodes, Marta Walraven won’t be as bad as Tony Soprano or Walter White but she will have gone from packing lunches to packing guns — with room to go darker.

Read More »Russian Mob Drama RED WIDOW’s Two-Hour Debut on ABC Tonight