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Lee Arenberg

SET: ONCE UPON A TIME Films on its Floating Pirate Ship Set in Steveston

Is Storybrooke offering weekly tours of Captain Hook’s pirate ship? It sure seems so. Ever since Hook (Colin O’Donoghue) and Cora (Barbara Hershey) sailed through a portal into this sequestered town in Maine at the end of the mid-season finale, we’ve seen a parade of townsfolk visiting the ship from the kidnapped Archie (Raphael Sbarge) to the uninvited RumBelle (Robert Carlyle & Emilie de Ravin) to the kidnapped Giant (Jorge Garcia), who’ll show up when the show returns with new episodes in February.

I’ve also spotted Charming (Josh Dallas), Snow (Ginnifer Goodwin), Emma (Jennifer Morrison), Henry (Jared Gilmore), Grumpy (Lee Arenberg), Regina (Lana Parrilla) and others too spoilery to mention on board since late last year when Once Upon a Time started filming scenes on this new floating set at the Britannia Heritage Shipyard Park in Steveston south of Vancouver.

The priate ship set is a truncated version of the Tall Ship Lady Washington which first appeared in Fairytale Land flashbacks of Captain Hook on his pirate ship — the Lady Washington is the exact same ship used in the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie when it was known as the HMS Interceptor, the fastest ship in the Caribbean. It looked magnificent as Captain Hook’s ship sailing up Howe Sound Read More »SET: ONCE UPON A TIME Films on its Floating Pirate Ship Set in Steveston

PROMOS: ONCE UPON A TIME 2×11 The Outsider – Updated

Whatever else happens next Sunday on Once Upon a Time, it’s a Rumple vs Hook showdown on Hook’s pirate ship in the Storybrooke harbour with Belle watching as Rumple adminsters a beat-down with his cane. But later, when Rumple finds a way to cross the town line without losing his memory of Bae — “Now you can find your son, ” says Belle  — a bloodied Hook, holding a gun, is having none of it — “I wouldn’t count on it,” he tells Rumple. This is what I’ve been waiting for since The Crocodile episode showed us their backstory.

RELATED – Hook & Smee spying from a Steveston roof

Read More »PROMOS: ONCE UPON A TIME 2×11 The Outsider – Updated

SHOOT: Charming Family Reunion in ONCE UPON A TIME Mid-Season Finale, 2×10

It was such a cold, wet October day in Steveston south of Vancouver when Once Upon a Time filmed the happy family reunion of Ginnifer Goodwin’s Snow, Josh Dallas’s Charming, Jennifer Morrison’s Emma and Jared Gilmore’s Henry walking arms round one another past the Storybrooke Library for tonight’s mid-season finale. But there was so much joy. I laughed when I saw Goodwin coming out of the cast van wearing an old-fashioned rain bonnet to protect her Mary Margaret pixie cut. Only Goodwin could look cute in one of these. And when Goodwin walked back from one of the takes with her arms outstretched like a monster.

But it’s been a long wait for this reunion scene to appear on screen. So it’s a bonus to have our season two villains, Barbara Hershey’s Cora and Colin O’Donoughe’s Hook, heading into Storybrooke on his pirate ship in the final scene. I photographed this dastardly pair disembarking from the ship at Steveston’s Britannia Shipyards a few weeks before Once Upon a Time filmed the reunion scene. Storybrooke is going to be one busy place in the new year.

Read More »SHOOT: Charming Family Reunion in ONCE UPON A TIME Mid-Season Finale, 2×10

BIG READ: Steveston & Fort Langley Messed Up By Magic for ONCE UPON A TIME

Published July 30th on Vancouver is Awesome

How big a hit is Once Upon a Time? The rookie fairy tale series was American TV’s second biggest drama hit (in the prized 18-49 demo) last season, below veteran Grey’s Anatomy but above veteran NCIS. And that’s put the fictional town of Storybrooke, Maine, on the map. Filmed in metro Vancouver, pieces of Storybrooke can pop up anywhere from Steveston to North Vancouver to New Westminster to Fort Langley, but Main Street is usually Moncton Street in the village of Steveston and sometimes Glover Road in the village of Fort Langley, 50 kilometres away.

In last season’s jam-packed finale, a couple of things happened: the curse was broken so all the fairy tale characters trapped in Storybrooke for 28 years now know who they really are and soon after, magic swept through the town courtesy of Rumplestiltskin. And what a mess that magic has made in season two, as we see from on-location shoots in Steveston last week and Fort Langley the week before for episode two. Crew turned two blocks of Moncton Street in Steveton into a disaster zone, with a big green-screen hole in the Storybrooke Hardware & Paint sign, uprooted ashphalt, overturned and smashed-up cars, a downed telephone pole, blown-out windows, and the hull of a boat near the main intersection. Over on Glover Road in Fort Langley, the windows in the Storybrooke Town Hall (Community Centre) were boarded up, posters of The Missing covered the town boards, a fire truck and fire fighters were on hand and the populace was in relief mode handing out blankets, bottles of water and toilet paper.

Fortunately, fans in both locations got to see main cast alive and well amid the destruction and to meet them too, with a couple of big exceptions: Ginnifer Goodwin’s Snow White and Jennifer Morrison’s Emma Swan are nowhere to be found in Storybrooke. What’s happened to them?Read More »BIG READ: Steveston & Fort Langley Messed Up By Magic for ONCE UPON A TIME

YVRSHOOT: Magic Makes a Big Mess of Steveston’s Moncton Street in ONCE UPON A TIME 2×02

Magic has made a big mess of Main Street in Storybrooke (played by Moncton Street in Steveston south of Vancouver) for modern-day fairy tale series Once Upon a Time in episode two of the second season. Main Street is a disaster zone, with uprooted ashphalt, overturned and smashed-up cars, a downed telephone pole, blown-out windows, and the hull of a boat near the main intersection. Fortunately, the many local fans of the show could see some main cast alive and well amid the debris on the artfully-destroyed street.

Meghan Ory, Lee Arenberg and the Evil Queen herself, Lana Parrilla, did some early morning scenes, leaving the afternoon for Josh Dallas to chase a Mad Hat (see if you can spot the black top hat in the photos below) east along the street and then into the alley next to Storybrooke Country Bread. Dallas ran and ran and ran all afternoon in stages, and then met with fans at the finish. As I’ve said before, he’s a Prince Charming in real life, too.

When I returned in the evening, it looked like Josh Dallas was in for another bout of running, but to chase the Mad Hatter himself, Sebastian Stan, not a Mad Hat. Stan soaked his shirt with perspiration running west down the street in the evening heat. Why was he running from Charming? It seems the Mad Hatter knows something about the whereabouts of Ginnifer Goodwin’s Snow White and Jennifer Morrison’s Emma Swan, who are nowhere to be seen in Storybrooke. What’s happened to them? We’ll have to wait until season two begins airing to find out.

I don’t know how Once Upon a Time filmed so many scenes and managed the hundreds of fans who flocked to set all day and evening long. Read More »YVRSHOOT: Magic Makes a Big Mess of Steveston’s Moncton Street in ONCE UPON A TIME 2×02