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Godzilla

COMIC-CON SKED: Legendary Pictures Preview of GODZILLA & SEVENTH SON

Two weeks from today, Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures preview their upcoming blockbuster films at San Diego Comic-Con on Saturday, July 20th. Godzilla is the one that intrigues me most, having just wrapped three months of filming in Vancouver. As expected, the new Godzilla is a re-imagining of Toho’s iconic Godzilla, but this time it’s “humanity’s scientific arrogance” which creates the radioactive monster and these ones cross the Pacific Ocean to terrorize San Francisco not Tokyo. It’s not clear which cast will be on the panel  — Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ken Watanabe, Elizabeth Olsen, Juliette Binoche, David Strathairn or Bryan Cranston — but director Gareth Edwards is expected to screen footage from Vancouver. Whatever is shown, I can’t wait to see it online. The 3D Godzilla reboot is scheduled for release on May 16th next year.

What’s behind the radioactive containment doors? Copyright Legendary Pictures

Read More »COMIC-CON SKED: Legendary Pictures Preview of GODZILLA & SEVENTH SON

WEEK: June 24-30, 2013

SHOOT: GODZILLA’s Japanese Nuclear Power Plant & its Quarantine Zone (in New Westminster)

Does the 3D Godzilla movie reboot reflect the real world event of Japan’s 2011 earthquake/tsunami and the resulting  nuclear crisis at some of the country’s older nuclear power plants? Is that the “contemporary issue” screenwriter Frank Darabont spoke of? It would seem so. “6.3 Earthquake Rocks Eastern Japan” said the news crawl on set screens at the Vancouver Convention Centre dressed as the Honolulu airport at the start of filming here in mid-March.

Janjira appears to be the fictional nuclear power plant in this modern-day re-imagining of the radioactive Japanese sea monster as a “terrifying force of nature”.

Godzilla used an abandoned Coquitlam paper recycling plant on the Fraser River to film a couple of weeks of scenes of the Janjira nuclear power station at risk of meltdown with radioactive leaks. Is this what wakes Godzilla (plural) from their slumber?

Related: Coquitlam paper recycling plant as Japanese nuclear power plant

Since Coquitlam, the Janjira plant has been played by an industrial building on Annacis Island and its offices by Nokia in Burnaby’s Glenlyon Business Park.  Godzilla also used  Steveston’s Japanese Cultural Centre to double as the Janjira International School Read More »SHOOT: GODZILLA’s Japanese Nuclear Power Plant & its Quarantine Zone (in New Westminster)

SHOOT: GODZILLA’s Destroyed Building, U.S. Aircraft Carrier & Navy Ship Sets at Kent Hangar Field

Update: Godzilla is prepping a real aircraft carrier, the USS Ronald Reagan, for filming at Coronada, California naval base as these sets are torn down.

Godzilla crew constructed several sets for greenscreen filming on the vast Kent Hanger gravel field next to the Fraser River Path on the Vancouver/Burnaby border.

Related: San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge Set with Giant Inflatable Greenscreens at Kent Hangar Field

After shooting on its Golden Gate Bridge set, crew moved it back to make way for new destroyed building and U.S. aircraft carrier sets.

Beware of Jet Blast, Propellers and Rotors.

Read More »SHOOT: GODZILLA’s Destroyed Building, U.S. Aircraft Carrier & Navy Ship Sets at Kent Hangar Field

WEEK: June 17-23, 2013

  • Sunday, June 23rd – The Killing 3×05 Scared and Running airs on AMC: Bullet (Bex Taylor Klaus) works with Sarah Linden (Mireille Enos) and Stephen Holder (Joel Kinnaman) to find girl on the run before killer does; Seward (Peter Sarsgaard) isn’t happy to see his son’s adoptive mother.
  • Sunday, June 23rd – Falling Skies 3×04 At All Costs airs on TNT. President meets President.
  • Sunday, June 23rd – Godzilla‘s main unit films in Vancouver’s Business District for second day on Everleigh Street off Thurlow and then the 1000 block of West Hastings (Oceanic Plaza) dressed as San Francisco BART station. Elizabeth Olsen on set under rain tower again but this time in action scene. 2nd unit films returns to debris-strewn Thurlow Street overnight but no controlled jump from crane this time.
  • Sunday, June 23rd – YVRShoots Series – The Killing’s Mireille Enos & Joel Kinnaman Investigate Street Kid Deaths in S3
  • Saturday/Sunday, June 22nd/23rd – Godzilla‘s second unit films massive SPFX explosions overnight at Watchmen’s Main Street set in Burnaby dressed as San Francisco’s Chinatown. Explosions much bigger than expected. Click on link for photo.
  • Saturday, June 22nd – Godzilla‘s main unit films in Vancouver’s Busines District on Everleigh Street off Thurlow and then the 1000 block of West Hastings (Oceanic Plaza) dressed as a San Francisco BART station. Elizabeth Olsen gets drenched by rain tower.
  • Saturday, June 22nd – Canada’s Constellation Awards in Toronto: Vancouver-cop-from-the-future series Continuum wins best sci-fi series and best female performance for Rachel Nichols and Vancouver-dinosaurs-run-amok series Primeval: New World wins best male performance for Niall Matter. Complete list of winners.
  • Saturday, June 22nd – Primeval: New World 1×03 airs on Syfy in the U.S.
  • Friday, June 21st – Continuum 2×03 airs on Syfy in the U.S. Drugs from the future and old- fashioned biker gangs.
  • Friday, June 21st – Almost Human, Bates Motel, Once Upon a Time in Wonderland and Supernatural filming start dates appear on BC production list. Summer start dates in Vancouver for these American 2013-14 season series plus Arrow, Once Upon a Time and The Tomorrow People announced earlier.
  • Friday, June 21st – New  YTV teen sitcom Some Assembly Required gets start date of July 21st on BC production list.
  • Friday, June 21st – Warner Bros. TV announces Arrow’s Stephen Amell;  Supernatural’s Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles and Misha Collins; Almost Human’s Karl Urban (Star Trek) and Michael Ealy; The 100’s Henry Ian Cusick (Lost); The Tomorrow People‘s Robbie Amell and showrunners will be at ComicCon 2013 in San Diego, July 17th to 21st.
  • Friday, June 21st – Movie World War Z in theatres, featuring The Killing‘s Mireille Enos as Brad Pitt’s wife.
  • Friday, June 21st – The Killing films season 3 finale at a house near Queens Park in New Westminster. Mireille Enos, Joel Kinnaman & Elias Koteas on set.
  • Friday, June 21st – The Province’s Alex Strachan interviews Hugh Dillon of The Killing and Continuum.
  • Thursday, June 20th – ABC Studios announces Once Upon a Time and Once Upon a Time in Wonderland casts and showrunners will be at ComicCon 2013 in San Diego on Saturday, July 20th. Read More »WEEK: June 17-23, 2013

SHOOT: Elizabeth Olsen Drenched by Rain Tower at GODZILLA in Downtown Vancouver

Godzilla's Gareth Edwards directs Elizabeth Olsen in downtown Vancouver. Copyright Godzilla.
Godzilla’s Gareth Edwards directs Elizabeth Olsen in downtown Vancouver. Copyright Godzilla.

Elizabeth Olsen got drenched by rain tower in take after take today on the set of Godzilla in Vancouver’s Business District dressed as San Francisco.  She reportedly plays the wife of Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Kick-Ass)’s lead character Lieutenant Ford. And since she’s wearing hospital scrubs seems to be some kind of doctor or EMR.  Crew filmed scenes of vehicles in gridlock near Oceanic Plaza dressed as a BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) station. Olsen got out of an ambulance in the rain and joined others looking up at something north of the street — [a fight between Godzilla and the two MUTO (massive unidentified terrestrial organisms)].

Related Godzilla turns Oceanic Plaza into a San Francisco BART station

Read More »SHOOT: Elizabeth Olsen Drenched by Rain Tower at GODZILLA in Downtown Vancouver