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BIG READ: PRIMEVAL: NEW WORLD Dinosaurs Terrorize Vancouver Neighbourhoods

Published October 25, 2012 on Vancouver is Awesome

Dinosaurs are running amok in Vancouver. And they’re hungry. New TV series Primeval: New World debuts this Monday, October 29th, on the SPACE channel.

A North American spinoff of the popular British series Primeval, co-showrunner Martin Wood describes the Vancouver version as a cop drama, but with dinosaurs as the crooks of the week. Very very large crooks. These anomalies suddenly appear and create havoc in our neighbourhoods like Stanley Park, Coal Harbour, downtown Vancouver, the Olympic Village, UBC’s Thunderbird Arena  and even a local Canadian Tire store.  And our dinosaurs are just as kickass as the British ones thanks to visual effects whiz Mark Savela. See the trailer.

Primeval: New World filmed its first 13-episode season here from early March to late July and I was lucky to spot Chuck Campbell, the guy-in-the-grey-skin-suit-carrying-a-sphere who becomes the computer-generated dinosaurs, in action. He chased an actor–jogger at the Olympic Village, who suddenly stopped, looked behind him, yelled “Holy Shit” and lept over a bench to try to get away. Now that’s acting. PNW star Niall Matter told InnerSPACE that in the first week of filming he couldn’t stop laughing whenever he looked at Chuck but quickly got over it.

Next Monday’s premiere introduces us to Niall Matter’s Vancouver software genius Evan Cross, Sara Canning’s animal attack behaviour expert Dylan Weir, Danny Rahim’s adventurer Mac Rendell Read More »BIG READ: PRIMEVAL: NEW WORLD Dinosaurs Terrorize Vancouver Neighbourhoods

PRIMEVAL: NEW WORLD Season Finale Turns Gastown Into London for PRIMEVAL’s Andrew-Lee Potts – Updated

Sometimes our city doesn’t play itself in upcoming Vancouver-as-Vancouver series Primeval: New World. Tonight a section of Gastown doubled as a London square and street with a prop red double-decker bus, prop black London cabs, prop red post box and a real British star.

Andrew-Lee Potts, aka Conner Temple from the original British series Primeval, is back to film another episode of the Vancouver spinoff, more than three months after guest-starring in the series premiere. He and Robert Lawrenson (Sanctuary) and two other ARC actors did take after take of the four of them chasing what will be a computer-generated dinosaur through Maple Square and along Alexander Street for half a block. It was a long run, especially when repeated over and over again (I did not envy the guy carrying the big case). Here are the ARC foursome walking back to the start point on Carrall Street, looking a bit like the cover of The Beatles’ iconic Abbey Road album (should be a zebra crossing but it’s not part of the scene).

Read More »PRIMEVAL: NEW WORLD Season Finale Turns Gastown Into London for PRIMEVAL’s Andrew-Lee Potts – Updated

PRIMEVAL: NEW WORLD’s “Leggy” Terrorizes UBC Thunderbird Arena This Week – Updated

In the upcoming Vancouver-as-Vancouver series Primeval: New World, primeval creatures enter our city through temporal anomolies, aka time portals, and create havoc. This week a winged creature is terrorizing the University of British Columbia in and around the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Arena (venue for Vancouver 2010 Olympics hockey and Paralympics sledge hockey). Crew setting up a crime scene in the Thunderbird Parkade last Friday told me it’s some kind of flying dinosaur [Update: it’s our cheezy-lovin’ Leggy from the grow-op escaping from a government facility]. Of course I didn’t see the creature, which will be computer-generated in post-production, but I did spy Dan Payne and other military actors arriving on the west side of the Thunderbird Arena on Friday morning and evacuating student extras on the east side on Monday morning.

Like the original British series Primeval, the Vancouver spinoff has a team of smart minds and animal experts who battle these creatures. Ours is led by Niall Matter as rich Vancouver software genius Evan Cross, seen here arriving at the Thunderbird Arena with co-star Sara Canning as predatory animal attack behaviour expert Dylan Weir.

As tall Dan Payne evacuated student extras carrying hockey sticks from the arena, Niall Matter and Sara Canning filmed a scene of them getting out of their jeep, looking back at the scene and possibly up to the sky at a flying creature, grabbing their prop tranquilizer rifles Read More »PRIMEVAL: NEW WORLD’s “Leggy” Terrorizes UBC Thunderbird Arena This Week – Updated

BIG READ: Vancouver’s CONTINUUM & PRIMEVAL: NEW WORLD at First Fan Expo Vancouver

Published April 17, 2012 on Vancouver is Awesome

Imagine two Vancouver-as-Vancouver TV series filming here, with B.C. Place stadium, the central Vancouver Public Library, Woodwards’ revolving “W”, Granville Island, Stanley Park and other local landmarks as themselves. It’s so rare for us to have one Vancouver-set series filming here, far less two. So come to our city’s first Fan Expo this Saturday, where you’ll get sneak peeks of both, as well as the chance to meet the showrunners and cast.

Continuum is about some kind of future officer named Kiera Cameron who travels back in time from Vancouver in the year 2077 to Vancouver in the year 2012, chasing a group of terrorists who plan to change the future from the past. You may have seen some of the spectacular-future-downtown-skyline teasers on Showcase, where the 10-episode series debuts in late May. Or the 2077/2012 split skylines on the Continuum show poster.

Continuum stars Rachel Nichols as Kiera Cameron, who joins the local Vancouver police force with Victor Webster as her 2012 detetective partner. You can see Nichols as her character filming in Vancouver with the Woodwards “W” in the background in a promo photo from the show. I’ve photographed Continuum filming at Victory Square, outside and inside the central Vancouver Public Library, The Centre and CBC Vancouver so far with prop Vancouver Police cars and VPD extras alongside real ones. Below is my photo of Nichols exiting an unmarked police car with the Vancouver Public Library reflected in the windshield. And below that is my photo of  Nichols and her co-star Victor Webster filming in a snowstorm at Victory Square. It will be a veritable Vancouver-palooza in each episode.

Read More »BIG READ: Vancouver’s CONTINUUM & PRIMEVAL: NEW WORLD at First Fan Expo Vancouver