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Goran Visnjic as RED WIDOW’s Russian Mob Boss in Downtown Vancouver

Red Widow added Goran Visnjic to the cast after the pilot was filmed, much to the delight of his Vancouver fans who know him as noble Dr. Luka Kovac on ER.

But this time Goran Visnjic is not the good guy. He’s the Big Bad.  His Russian mafia is blamed for the shooting of Marta Walraven (Radha Mitchell)’s husband in the season premiere. She should be mourning but must work with her husband’s killers to repay the [$1.5 million ] debt owed to mob boss Nicholae Schiller (Goran Visnjic) and to protect her family.

I looked for Goran Visnjic early on at the Russian mob restaurant Cafe Rossiya played by Lana Lou’s restaurant in the Downtown Eastside but never caught him in an exterior scene until Red Widow’s season finale filmed at the Exchange Tower downtown. 

[Update: In the two-hour premiere, Goran Visnijic demonstrated his black belt in kung-fu in a sparring scene. Impressive.]

 

Read More »Goran Visnjic as RED WIDOW’s Russian Mob Boss in Downtown Vancouver

PROMOS: ARROW 1×13 Betrayal Promo Images – Updated

David Anders (Once Upon a Time and Alias) is the next cult guest star to drop by Arrow. We’ll meet him next Wednesday night as infamous Starling City criminal Cyrus Vanch, who plans to take on Stephen Amell’s The Hood to re-establish his reputation as a leading crime lord. Something tells me it won’t work out.

But the theme of the episode is betrayal and there seems to be plenty of that to go around. In the Island flashbacks, Stephen Amell’s Oliver Queen meets Manu Bennett’s man-behind-the-Deathstroke-mask who claims there are two masks..

© 2013 The CW Television Network

Flash forward to Starling City where the major betrayals are parental. Katie Cassidy’s Laurel is betrayed by her father who uses her as bait to capture The Hood, filmed in the rain on top of the Bentall parkade in front of a gaggle of visiting American TV journalists. Afterward Laurel angrily tells Colin Donnell’s Tommy about it but he’s not thrilled she kept her meetings with The Hood secret from him.

Read More »PROMOS: ARROW 1×13 Betrayal Promo Images – Updated

BIG READ: Vancouver Crime Drama MOTIVE Debuts This Sunday After Superbowl on CTV

Published January 31, 2013 on Vancouver is Awesome.

CTV has given the debut of its new Vancouver crime drama Motive a prime spot on its schedule — the post-Superbowl slot this Sunday. In a new twist on procedurals, Motive reveals the killer and the victim at the start of each of episode or as the show’s tagline puts it — The Murder is Just the Beginning. Then we follow along with “feisty female Vancouver detective” Angie Flynn (Kristin Lehman) and her partner Oscar Vega (Louis Ferreira) as they investigate the case and discover what motive drove the killer to murder.

The Foundation Features and Lark Productions series created by Dexter writer Daniel Cerone began filming thirteen episodes in the city last September and wraps its first season late next month. If I hadn’t heard that Kristin Lehman had been cast as single mother and damn fine detective Angie Flynn, I might not have recognized her in Olympic Plaza at The Village on False Creek last October. There’s very little of her haughty blue-blooded political campaign consultant Gwen Eaton from The Killing in this new character sporting  a leather jacket, kickass boots and permed hair.

Read More »BIG READ: Vancouver Crime Drama MOTIVE Debuts This Sunday After Superbowl on CTV

Crazed Fandom Show CULT Debuts February 19th on The CW – Updated

What happens when a rabid, obsessed fandom crosses the line between the imagined and reality? We’ll get to see in three weeks when the buzzed-about meta series Cult debuts on The CW. The pilot episode introduces us to journalist Jeff (Matt Davis from the Vampire Diaries) searching for his brother whose disappearance may be linked to the fans of a TV series called Cult recreating what they’ve seen on the show. Jeff enlists the help of production assistant Skye (Jessica Lucas) from the show-within-a-show to examine the dark influence of its cult leader character Billy (Robert Knepper) on the fans and how the show-within-a-show’s creator might be purposefully manipulating them. The next twelve episodes track the fan reaction to twelve episodes of the show-within-a-show, culminating in season finales for both.

[sz-youtube url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F65Zw_BLtqA” /]

[Update: A new promo asks What is Real? One is TV. One is Reality. As it cuts back and forth  between scenes from the show-within-a-show and “reality”.  Cult filmed the scene of car vs  train on railroad tracks in Langley and caused traffic gridlock on a Friday afternoon as drivers slowed down to stare.]

[sz-youtube url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22aMECBzGUc” /]

Related: Matt Davis filming TV pilot Cult in Gastown

Showrunner Rockne O’Bannon of Farscape fame told the Television Critics Association (TCA) winter press tour that Cult puts a magnifying glass on the potential dangers of a passionate fan base of a dark show. Executive producer Josh Swartz elaborated, saying today’s fans feel like they have an emotional ownership of their show and get so  much more access to the people who create, write and star in it that they “may feel they control that conversation as well. And when things don’t go the way they have tweeted, there’s a certain level of animosity Read More »Crazed Fandom Show CULT Debuts February 19th on The CW – Updated

WEEK: January 21-27, 2013

SHOOT: CONTINUUM S2’s Green Skin Suit Stunt at CBC Vancouver for 2×01 – Updated

Updated April 21, 2013. Green skin suit for invisible fighting by Kiera.

After Continuum star Rachel Nichols wrapped her scenes at the CBC Vancouver parking garage on Friday night, crew brought out stunt mats and a stunt performer dressed in a green skin suit. It looks like she’s the stunt double for Kiera Cameron’s cop-from-the-corporate-future or could that be a Kiera double on the mat? We’ll have to wait to see the final VFXed scenes.

Read More »SHOOT: CONTINUUM S2’s Green Skin Suit Stunt at CBC Vancouver for 2×01 – Updated

SHOOT: Rain Towers & Stunt for CONTINUUM’s Rachel Nichols at CBC Vancouver for 2×01 – Updated

Updated April 21, 2013.

Continuum‘s cop-from-the-corporate-future Kiera Cameron (Rachel Nichols) is back in her black high-tech cat suit  for a second season and was spotted kicking the crap out of some bad guys in CBC Vancouver’s parking garage last night. Other cast members commiserated on Twitter ahead of the “rain tower” night shoot, where Nichols got good and wet in front of a handful of fans, photographers and passersby on a closed block of Cambie Street downtown.

Related: Invisible Green Skin Suit Fighting at CBC Vancouver Parking Garage

Crew set up rain towers on either side of the entrance for a “rain effect”. That seems odd to people who know how much it rains in Vancouver but it has to be a deluge to show up on camera.

Read More »SHOOT: Rain Towers & Stunt for CONTINUUM’s Rachel Nichols at CBC Vancouver for 2×01 – Updated

SHOOT: Moira Queen (Susanna Thompson) & Chin Han (Frank Chen) in Fire Alarm Scene for ARROW 1×16 at Bayshore Hotel – Updated

What happened in the Westin Bayshore Hotel when the lights went out and the fire alarm flashed orange? Moira Queen (Susanna Thompson) is the only Starling City 1 per-center I recognized exiting the building. She was accompanied by a mysterious Asian man [Update: Frank Chen (Chin Han from The Dark Knight) who is an old friend of the Queen family and involved Malcolm Merlyn’s nefarious The Undertaking],  So where are Malcolm and Tommy Merlyn (John Barrowman and Colin Donnell) and where is her hooded son Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell)? Are they all inside somewhere?

Arrow filmed in the Westin Bayshore Hotel in Coal Harbour for two afternoon/evenings this week and this was the only exterior scene. 150 chilled -to-the-bone background performers, dressed in evening gowns or tuxes, vacated the hotel during a simulated fire alarm in take after take on Tuesday night. Two cameras filmed the big exterior — one high on a hoist at the north end of the property and the second, a tracking camera directly in front of the lobby doors. Last night Arrow was scheduled to film in the International Suite on the west side of the hotel, with a simulated flash of light and the sound of a prop pistol. Who gets shot? We’ll have to wait to find out.

Read More »SHOOT: Moira Queen (Susanna Thompson) & Chin Han (Frank Chen) in Fire Alarm Scene for ARROW 1×16 at Bayshore Hotel – Updated