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Yaletown

WEEK: March 25-31, 2013

WEEK: March 18-24, 2013

SHOOT: ROGUE’s Marton Csokas Films at Bentall 5 Tower in Downtown Vancouver

DirecTV’s Rogue has been tough to find filming on location in Vancouver, so it was a pleasant surprise to spot them out in the open on Saturday afternoon at the Bentall 5 tower downtown dressed as Trade Investments. Production has been “hush hush”, one of their productions guys told me last week out at Deer Lake. No kidding. All we really know is that the American satellite network’s first original series stars Thandie Newton (Mission Impossible 2, Crash) as Grace, a morally-compromised undercover cop in Oakland, who’s cavorting with Marton Csokas’s crime boss, who may have been involved in her son’s death. Now that’s a complicated relationship.

Could Marton Csokas’s crime boss be the tall dressed-in-black mafioso type in the scene below? If so, Csokas (Lord of the Rings, Alice in Wonderland) is virtually unrecognizable with jet black hair, except for his height. Joining him in the walk and talk out of Bentall 5 is BC’s own Frank Cassini. (Blackstone)  I also spotted BC’s own Ian Tracey (DaVinci’s Inquest, Intelligence, Sanctuary) on set but didn’t see him in a scene.

 

Ian Tracey is Detective Lucas “Mitch” Mitchel.

Of course, as often happens, I found Rogue again today filming inside La Terrazza, a Yaletown restaurant at Pacific and Cambie. And this time, Thandie Newton seemed to be on set, but I can’t be sure. Read More »SHOOT: ROGUE’s Marton Csokas Films at Bentall 5 Tower in Downtown Vancouver

SHOOT: RED WIDOW’s Radha Mitchell & Lee Tergesen Filming in Yaletown Townhouse – Updated

Midseason ABC series Red Widow started filming its first episode as a series today in a Yaletown townhouse opposite George Weinborn Park. Mob widow Radha Mitchell emerged from the townhouse after some scenes and chatted a bit with co-star Lee Tergesen while waiting for a ride back to circus under the Granville Bridge. She then waved off her star car and clambered into the one of the vans.

But it seemed a bit early in the series for Lee Tergesen’s mob foot soldier Mike Tomlin to be strangling Radha Mitchell’s mob widow Marta Walraven, even in practice.  I’m sure it’s just the angle of my photograph.

Read More »SHOOT: RED WIDOW’s Radha Mitchell & Lee Tergesen Filming in Yaletown Townhouse – Updated

Sneak Peek of THE KILLING’s Linden & Holder on the Run + Recap of Days 22 & 23

After returning to the Wapi Eagle Casino again, our detective duo Linden & Holder find themselves on the run in Day 24 of the investigation into the murder of 17-year-old Rosie Larsen this Sunday on AMC.

At the end of March, Mireille Enos as Sarah Linden and Joel Kinnaman as Stephen Holder arrived on location in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside to film their parts in a chase scene. A stunt double had been driving Holder’s beater car south on Prior Street (dressed with a 22 Ave NW street sign) through the Powell Street intersection in take after take. A blue unmarked chase vehicle gets boxed in as Holder’s car speeds away. Mireille Enos replaced her stunt double in the passenger seat for a shorter scene of Holder’s car making a sharp left turn into an alley.

Less than a week later, I watched them filming Linden & Holder on the run at night at Richmond City Hall dressed as Seattle City Hall, but I’ll hold onto those photos until I know if it’s in Day 24, entitled Bulldog.

To backtrack: Day 22 of the investigation found BFFs Linden & Holder returning to the casino where Rosie Larsen was last seen alive to get access to the 10th floor using her key. While Linden sneaks by, Holder distracts security in a hilarious scene. He’s single-handedly turned The Killing from a dead serious, morose drama into a dramedy: “Hey, what’s up guys. You winning?….Johnny Knoxville you doin’ it man…show me your cards man…I love your haircut man. It’s slick. It’s old-school slick…Where are the ladies?…I’m talkin’ real ladies. Ain’t no party without no trim….What’s up Bobby [casino security chief Roberta Drays] …I just want my phone back cupcake….Probably fell out of my pocket when you kicked the shit out of me the other day…Beware of the She-Wolf, she’ll crack your ribs…..Look at that [lifts up his shirt to show bruises]….Oh I found my phone…My Bad….My boss at SPD will love this one [takes photo with phone]…..Oh I’ll see myself out….Sayonara, Hiawatha!”

Read More »Sneak Peek of THE KILLING’s Linden & Holder on the Run + Recap of Days 22 & 23

Hunt for Holder on THE KILLING – Recap of Days 20 & 21

Poor Holder. He so wants to be good at something. Football. Breakdancing. Turns out he’s a good cop but there’s not much reward in that on The Killing.

Last week we discovered that the person shadowing our detective duo Linden & Holder is none other than Wapi Eagle Casino security chief Roberta Drays. A rattled Linden seeks refuge for her and her son Jack at Holder’s apartment, where he cooks them some breakfast burritos and Linden finds a lead that takes her to the Wapi Indian Reservation on Day 20 of the investigation. She tells Holder to check out the Wapi Eagle casino. Uh-oh. That spells trouble.

Linden has a run-in on the reservation, some of which was filmed on Tsleil Waututh Nation land in North Vancouver, with Wapi Casino Chief Nicole Jackson who tells her, “Anything can happen on this land, detective. You’ve been warned.” Jackson and her two thugs escort her off . Holder, meantime, is chatting up a blackjack dealer and female and male hookers in the casino and making himself all kinds of conspicuous trying to get access to the mysterious under-construction 10th floor. Tribal police greet him at the elevator and handcuff him even though he tells them he’s a cop. “Not here you ain’t,” one says. They take him to a remote spot in the woods where Jackson and Drays are waiting. Jackson then calls Linden on Holder’s phone and holds it up so she can hear the Wapi thugs kicking and beating her partner while he screams.

Last night’s episode opened with Linden desperate to find Holder. She requests a police search team but is told it has to go up the chain of command. She takes her son Jack back to Holder’s apartment where she gets a call saying Lt. Carlson nixed the search party. Linden leaves Jack and storms into Carlson’s office, shouting at him about how bad it will look when Internal Affairs find out he did nothing while a cop died “out in the field”.

Linden returns to the reservation, encountering a road block in the dark. “Seattle police don’t have jurisdiction here,” casino security chief Drays says. But Carlson has taken heed of Linden’s warning and shows up with a search team telling Linden they have until dawn.

Officers find Holder’s Pez dispenser near a dump, which they search in the daylight hours of Day 21 of the investigation. That fake dump was set up on a field in Tynehead Park in Surrey in late February. I watched Mireille Enos as Linden and the police extras turn over fake garbage with a Seattle fan who’d driven up that morning to see some Vancouver filming of her show.

A little girl points and Linden looks around up at the woods. The team runs up the hill in Tynehead Park to a bigger field where they’d filmed earlier in the day. There the search dogs find a bloodied and beaten Holder lying at the foot of a tree.

Read More »Hunt for Holder on THE KILLING – Recap of Days 20 & 21

THE KILLING – Recap of Days Seventeen to Nineteen of the Investigation

Linden & Holder. The dynamic detective duo are back together for days seventeen to nineteen of The Killing investigation into the death of Seattle teenager Rosie Larsen. And it’s wonderful to watch and listen to them. I got to see quite a bit of Mireille Enos and Joel Kinnaman filming these scenes inside lead homicide detective Sarah Linden’s silver car in various spots around Vancouver-as-Seattle’s downtown and downtown eastside, but couldn’t hear any of their often funny dialogue.

Day Sixteen ends with Linden & Holder staking out the Larsen residence and Holder attempting to explain his actions to her: “Linden, I thought the [Darren] Richmond photo was legit. Kay. I mean Gil saved my life. I had 10 days in when I met him.” Linden is having none of it: “I don’t care. We’re in the middle of a shit storm because of you.” They follow an S.A. Larsen truck to Janek’s restaurant. Holder points out they’re not Stan Larsen’s guys: “They don’t got the overalls.”

The next day, the detective duo meet up with a mob expert with the FBI, who shows them a photo of the body of a man hands-bound with a single shot to his head in the trunk of a car and tells them that it was Stan Larsen who whacked him. Back at the police station, it’s another fun food conversation with Linden asking Holder: “Mmmmm is that bacon?” He replies: “Nah this is ham, eggs and sausage.” Linden: “What happened your whole lacto ova vegan thing?” Holder: “Nothing. I’m just ready to embrace meat again.” And then after a while, Holder brainstorms: “Maybe Rosie’s BFF knows about tattoo boy?”

After first stopping in to see the widow of the man killed by Stan Larsen, Linden & Holder go to Rosie’s school to ask her BFF, played by Vancouver’s own Kacey Rohl, what she knows about the Boy with the Manga Tattoo. She confirms seeing this boy hanging around Rosie’s place but that’s all.

They go to a juvenile hall to question the tattoo artist and discover the boy was a foster kid, Alexi Giffords, who lived three blocks from the Larsens. And then onto the stakeout scenes I saw being filmed in Strathcona. It was a long one and Holder got on Linden’s nerves to the point she made him get out of the car and left.

I couldn’t help but laugh. He was so Holder: “Yo I gotta piss. So Rosie likes bad boys like her father.” Linden doesn’t buy it but Holder presses on: “It’s in the DNA…sins of the fathers.” Linden: “Did you read that in O magazine?”

Then he teases her about the FBI Mob guy: “Oh snap, Linden rocked a booty call. Dial 1-900-Linden.” Linden replies: “It’s not even enough numbers.”  But when Holder starts pushing her Foster kid buttons she snaps. He reminds her she was a runner in her day and she gives him a warning look but he continues on: “I’m just making conversation since we’re wasting our time anyway.” Linden barks: “You’re right this is a waste of time. Get out!” Holder: “Come on Linden. What am I supposed to do out here?”. Linden: “Your job.” Holder: “Least we’re back to normal.” They are.

Linden goes to see Regi to ask to read a file on an ex-foster kid. The Regi and Linden talking on the dock scenes were filmed in late January at the Quayside Marina in Yaletown. Here are my photographs of Mireille Enos and Annie Corley being battered by wind and rain on their way to set and on set.

Meanwhile Holder is taking a piss when Alexi returns home. He chases him but can’t manage the fence. And Linden gets a peek at the file which tells her Alexi is the son of the man Stan Larsen whacked.

Read More »THE KILLING – Recap of Days Seventeen to Nineteen of the Investigation

BIG READ: THE KILLING Investigation Returns for 2nd Season

Published March 30, 2012 on Vancouver is Awesome

The  investigation returns this Sunday night with The Killing‘s two-hour second season premiere on AMC and a new marketed tagline — Be Careful What You Uncover — on the show’s poster. Following a Twitter riot over last season’s finale, showrunner Veena Sud has promised that the central mystery and last season’s marketed tagline — Who Killed Rosie Larsen? — will be solved in this season’s finale.

In addition to not solving the murder in last June’s finale, The Killing turned Joel Kinnaman’s detective Stephen Holder, one of the few likable characters, into a seeming villain, who betrayed Mireille Enos’s lead detective Sarah Linden and set up Seattle mayoral candidate Darren Richmond for arrest. So it’s not surprising that in early filming of season two in Vancouver (which began in late November and is scheduled to wrap in late April), I never found Enos and Kinnaman at the same location shoot.

The set-in-Seattle cop drama debuted last spring with what is considered to be one of the smartest, most stylish and rainiest pilots in years but lost its lustre along the way with too many red herrings and erratic writing. I balked in the third episode when writers clumsily explained gallons of blood smeared on the walls around The Cage in the high school basement as the product of a nose bleed and the rape video as a young girl (Vancouver’s own Kacey Rohl)’s desire for attention. But I stuck with the series to the end and will be back on Sunday night because I developed an attachment to these characters. And that’s the dichotomy: the performances are sublime even when the plotting goes array.

Read More »BIG READ: THE KILLING Investigation Returns for 2nd Season