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Chinatown

SHOOT: KING & MAXWELL’s Jon Tenney Dupes a Bad Guy

King & Maxwell filmed a big scene in Chinatown yesterday of secret-service-agent-turned-private-investigator Sean King (Jon Tenney) driving north on Taylor Street when a “bad guy” in a truck speeds out of Shanghai Alley and rams him.  I dropped by in the afternoon when crew shot King (Jon Tenney) rolling out of the front seat and hitting the ground as the “bad guy” fired multiple rounds from his machine gun into the back seat of King’s Lexus, where he expected to find a key witness. Guess he missed the old switcheroo.  Later in the early evening,  crew filmed close-ups of the “bad guy” opening the door to find a dummy riddled with bullet holes — not the witness. Score: King 1. Bad Guy 0. King and his partner secret-service-agent-turned-private-investigator Michelle Maxwell (Rebecca Romijn) then came round behind the “bad guy” and arrested him.

King & Maxwell wraps filming of its first season of ten episodes this week in Vancouver.

“Bad Guy”

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WEEK: June 10-16, 2013

SHOOT: Hugh Dillon Films Vancouver Indie THE LAST CROP on Chinatown Roof

You’d think Hugh Dillon would be an easy man to find in Vancouver since he’s been recurring on Continuum as the mysterious Mr. Escher and on The Killing as death-row prison guard Francis Becker. But one character is mysterious (last seen in his office high up in the W-43 Tower in Gastown) and the other works in a prison (Burnaby Youth Detention Centre, Riverview, studio) so fan Julie had given up until he gave her a headsup today to check out Chinatown.

Dillon was up on a roof  helping out his friend James Hutson by appearing in his indie film The Last Crop about you-guessed-it — A man battles unknown enemies to find out who is stealing his marijuana crops. He learns that his own worst enemy may be himself.  Here’s a tracking shot of Dillon’s character Vincent coming out of an SUV and talking on his phone against a West Vancouver backdrop.

Read More »SHOOT: Hugh Dillon Films Vancouver Indie THE LAST CROP on Chinatown Roof

WEEK: May 20-26, 2013

  • Sunday, May 26th – Vancouver-cop-from-the-future series  Continuum 2×05 Second Opinion airs on Showcase. Kiera (Rachel Nichols) has emotional breakdown on her son’s birthday which messes with her CMR. As if that wasn’t enough. Kiera is the target of a department mole hunt.
  • Friday, May 24th – Godzilla main unit films in Steveston’s Finn Slough dressed as Japanese fishing village in nuclear quarantine zone.
  • Friday, May 24th – Godzilla main unit films at USS Alameda set in Steveston’s Garry Point Park.
  • Friday, May 24th – Neill Blomkamp’s Elysium starring Matt Damon & Jodie Foster  makes Entertainment Weekly’s Summer Must List. In theatres on August 9th.
  • Friday, May 24th –  News that The CW will air final episodes of Cult in 2 hour blocks 8pm-10pm on June 28th, July 5th and July 12th. 
  • Thursday, May 23rd – Vancouver whydunnit Motive 1×02 Crimes of Passion airs on ABC network.
  • Thursday, May 23rd – News that hometown comedy couple Brent Butt and Nancy Robertson to host Leo Awards Gala Ceremony.
  • Thursday, May 23rd – Way of the Wicked starring Christian Slater and Peter Fanicelli films near Squamish in Minaty Bay on the Sea to Sky Highway.
  • Thursday, May 23rd – Vancouver whydunit Motive settles into regular time slot on American network ABC but pre-empted locally by collapse of I-5 bridge over Skagit River near Seattle.
  • Thursday, May 23rd – Continuum star Rachel Nichols tweets her thanks to episode director Amanda Tapping – Dear @amandatapping – being directed by you has been my favorite #Continuum experience. You are beautiful, brilliant & inspiring. Thank you. 
  • Thursday, May 23rd – Network Series Rankings: Once Upon a Time still a hit for ABC, ranking  #17 in advertiser-coveted 18-49 demographic. Despite an uneven season, OUAT successfuly added Captain Hook (Colin O’Donoghue), the Jolly Roger and Neverland to its fictional worlds.
  • Thursday, May 23rd – Godzilla 2nd unit films on Steveston docks dressed as San Francisco Fisherman’s Wharf for last time. Soldier stunt guys carry warhead.
  • Thursday, May 23rd – Godzilla main unit snakes into Steveston’s Finn Slough dressed as Japanese fishing village in nuclear quarantine zone.
  • Thursday, may 23rd – Godzilla main unit films on its USS Alameda set in Steveston’s Garry Point Park. A set which rocks & rolls like a Disney ride.
  • Thursday, May 23rd – King & Maxwell with Jon Tenney & Rebecca Romijn films big scenes inside Pacific Central Station dressed as Washington, D.C. station with dozens Read More »WEEK: May 20-26, 2013

WEEK: April 15-21, 2013

Going Numb on THE KILLING Day Sixteen

Joel Kinnaman’s conspiracy patsy Stephen Holder goes numb in epic fashion in The Killing’s third episode of the second season: scaring his nephew, beating up one of his old dealers, having sex in a car and then walking through oncoming traffic on what looks like Vancouver’s Georgia Viaduct (the red S on top of the Scotiabank tower is a giveaway).

This is where Mireillie Enos’s Sarah Linden — now back as lead detective on the Rosie Larsen murder case — finds Holder, having spent Day Sixteen of the investigation methodically backtracking what he has done or not done during her brief absence. She asks a uniformed police officer what happened to her warrant for a client list from the Beau Soleil computer servers, the on-line escort service sixteen-year-old Rosie Larsen worked for. It turns out Mark Moses’s new Lieutenant has obstructed her with red tape. While she’s waiting for the warrant, she goes to the Larsen house with a photograph of the manga tattoo from the arm of Rosie Larsen’s mysterious bicycling companion in a video. She’s confronted by a hostile Stan Larsen unwilling to look at anything until the police tell him what they’ve discovered about Rosie’s pink, bedazzled backpack dropped on his doorstep at the end of Day Fourteen.

That brings to Linden to just-retired Lieutenant Oakes’s boat moored somewhere on the Fraser River to retrieve the backpack which Holder entered into evidence. She quickly realizes that this is not Rosie Larsen’s backpack and that Holder must have made a switch, calling him to say: “I know what you did with the backpack…we need to talk..call me back.” Back at the station, she re-watches the video of Rosie Larsen on her bike for the umpteenth time. The uniformed police officer interrupts to tell her that he went to serve her Beau Soleil warrant at the shoe place but there was a fire there that morning.

Sarah Linden gets out of her car at the arsoned shoe store, filmed in Vancouver’s Chinatown early this year, saying, “Seattle PD. Were the computers damaged?” Told there were no computers, she squints around in Linden fashion, spying some security cameras on the street.

This was the first time I’d seen Mireille Enos filming on location for season two. She is so different from her character, quick with a smile and happy in her life, as you can see below in my photograph of her and a crew member.

The next scene in Numb is of Brent Sexton’s Stan Larsen picking up his two boys at school, only to discover that shady crime figure and Larsen’s former boss Janek Kovarsky has been by to visit them. I photographed Brent Sexton in character as Stan Larsen filming this scene at Vancouver’s Lord Strathcona Read More »Going Numb on THE KILLING Day Sixteen