Warner Bros. TV

BIG READ: Hooded-Vigilante Series ARROW’s Record-Breaking Premiere

by Susan Gittins
October 15, 2012August 3, 2013
Arrow, YVRSHOOTS Series

Published October 11, 2012 on Vancouver is Awesome

Being Bad Never Looked So Good. Last night’s series premiere of Vancouver (and Victoria)-shot Arrow broke records with four million viewers and bragging rights as the biggest show on the American network The CW in three years.

Loosely-based on DC Comics The Green Arrow, the TV series Arrow is less Smallville-ish and more like The Dark Knight trilogy’s re-imagined Batman. The story: missing and thought dead for five years after a shipwreck, Stephen Amell’s billionaire playboy Oliver Queen returns home a changed man. He secretly creates the persona of vigilante Arrow to fight crime and corruption in Starling City with martial arts and technology plus the special skill of archery.

By day, Oliver Queen continues to play the part of the billionaire cad he used to be, while trying to make amends with those he wronged, like his former girlfriend Dinah “Laurel” Lance, who works for a legal aid group called CNRI (Canary!). But she’s having none of it. “I didn’t grieve. I was too angry,” Katie Cassidy’s Lance tells Amell’s Queen Read More »BIG READ: Hooded-Vigilante Series ARROW’s Record-Breaking Premiere

Fringe’s Peter Bishop & Arch-Enemy Captain Windmark in Downtown Vancouver for Ep. 5×08

by Susan Gittins
October 15, 2012April 3, 2024
Fringe

Peter Bishop (Joshua Jackson) and the Fringe Division’s arch-enemy Captain Windmark (Michael Kopsa) filmed on the same downtown Vancouver set today near BC Place but not in the same scene when I was watching. So it was an unexpected treat to see Kopsa and Jackson looking and laughing at something on Jackson’s iPhone during a break from shooting.

SHOOT: SUPERNATURAL’s Dean, His Purgatory Pal & the Impala Film at Steveston’s Britannia Shipyards for 8×09

by Susan Gittins
October 12, 2012January 22, 2013
Supernatural

After filming some interior scenes at the Britannia Heritage Shipyards Building in Steveston south of Vancouver yesterday, Supernatural crew set up for the night shoot: a big exterior scene of Dean Winchester (Jensen Ackles) driving the Impala to this building now re-named the Lefevre Shipyard where he meets up with his Purgatory pal (Ty Olsson) carrying a big knife and the pair go inside the building. Not that complicated a scene, but lighting it and the area took a long time and provided a lot of stop-and-stare beauty for locals walking their dogs.

by Susan Gittins
October 10, 2012January 5, 2013
Arrow

Being Bad Never Looked So Good. Check out the abs on Stephen Amell’s billionaire playboy Oliver Queen tonight in the series premiere of Arrow on the CW and CTV Two. Missing and thought dead for five years after a shipwreck, Queen returns home a changed man. He secretly creates the persona of vigilante Arrow to fight crime and corruption in Starling City with martial arts and technology plus the special skill of archery.

By day, Queen continues to play the part of the billionaire cad he used to be while trying to make amends with those he wronged, like his former girlfriend Dinah “Laurel” Lance, who works for a legal aid group called CNRI (Canary!). But she’s having none of it. “I didn’t grieve. I was too angry,” Katie Cassidy’s Lance tells Amell’s Queen in a scene filmed for the premiere in Gastown next to Chill Winston last March.

Sam & Dean & Cas? Supernatural’s New Demon-Hunting Trio in Downtown Vancouver for Ep. 8×08

by Susan Gittins
October 6, 2012December 2, 2012
Supernatural

Whatever happened to Castiel in Purgatory, he didn’t look so cuckoo-bananas last night in downtown Vancouver filming a scene for episode eight of the eighth season with his BFFs Sam & Dean. The scene itself was pretty simple: the trio get out of the Impala and walk over to a crime scene at the Lumbermens Building on Richards Street turned Oklahoma Bank of Commerce. Simple and quick. But in between takes, we witnessed all kinds of hijinks.

Jared Padalecki (Sam) and Jensen Ackles (Dean) kept howling with laughter in the Impala. I blame Misha Collins (Castiel), the shadowy figure in the back seat. All three have a comedic gift, but Collins is the true comic. I will miss his cuckoo-bananas Cas if he’s recovered his sanity in season eight.

On the way back to the Impala, Misha Collins (Castiel) kept staring up at something in the building opposite. He even pointed at it, bringing Jared Padalecki (Sam) into it. [UPDATE: That’s the prop cartoon black hole in the wall that Dean puts his hand through.]

CULT’s Robert Knepper & Alona Tal Film the Show-Within-A-Show at the Vancouver Art Gallery for 1×07

by Susan Gittins
October 4, 2012July 27, 2013
The CW Series

Updated April 10, 2013 – This was the last episode of Cult aired by The CW before it cancelled the show.

Cult filmed scenes of Cult — its show-within-a-show — today at the Vancouver Art Gallery, with Robert Knepper (Prison Break)’s cult leader speaking about a proposed youth centre while Alona Tal’s police officer opens the trunk of the red car featured in the show-within-a-show. Confused yet?

You should be. “When the line between the imagined and reality is broken” is the meta tagline of The CW’s midseason series Cult. Matt Davis (The Vampire Diaries) stars as Jeff, an investigative journalist searching for his brother whose disappearance may be linked to the fans of a TV series called Cult (which stars Robert Knepper and Alona Tal’s characters) recreating what they’ve seen on the show. Jeff enlists the help of Jessica Lucas’s production assistant Skye from the show-within-a-show. Hopefully, all this meta-ness will be easier to follow when we see it on screen early next year.

SHOOT: Mamie Gummer of EMILY OWENS M.D. Filming at University of British Columbia

by Susan Gittins
September 28, 2012July 27, 2013
The CW Series

It’s been almost six months since I saw Emily Owens M.D. film scenes for its pilot at the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre of its star Mamie Gummer (Meryl Streep’s daughter) walking in and out the front doors as Emily, a social nerd and surgical intern who finds life at Denver Memorial Hospital a lot like high school. Gummer returned yesterday in the autumn sunshine to film scenes of Emily picking up juice at a juice bar by the main entrance, with a prop Denver Memorial ambulance parked out front and lot of background performers milling about.

This Emily doesn’t look anywhere near as frazzled as she does in the show poster — Practicing Medicine. Working on Life.

CULT’s Stacey Farber Films in Downtown Vancouver’s Victory Square With Fake Palm Tree – Updated

by Susan Gittins
September 24, 2012July 27, 2013
The CW Series

Cult crew had to rent a fake palm tree and sweep up fall leaves in Victory Square today to film a scene set in Santa Monica. Vancouver’s endless summer came to an abrupt halt late last week so it will be tougher and chillier for Cult to fake southern California in the two-plus months left of filming for The CW series expected to air next year.

Cult is about an investigative journalist named Jeff (Matt Davis of The Vampire Diaries) searching for his brother whose disappearance may be linked to the fans of a horror TV series called Cult recreating what they’ve seen on the show. Jeff enlists the help of a production assistant (Jessica Lucas) from the show-within-a-show. “When the line between the imagined and reality is broken” is the meta tagline.

Tech person E.J. (Stacey Farber)

ARROW’s Stephen Amell Chases Shooter on Motorcycle in Downtown Vancouver for Ep. 1×07 – Updated

by Susan Gittins
September 21, 2012January 5, 2013
Arrow

Arrow’s Stephen Amell is a fast runner. So fast I only got one decent shot of him running up the stairs after a shooter on a motorcycle at Queen Consolidated, aka a tower at the corner of West Georgia and Homer in downtown Vancouver.

Shooter speeding away [UPDATE: a stunt double for Jessica De Gouw as Helena Bertinelli, aka The Huntress]