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Downtown Eastside

COMIC-CON NEWS: ARROW Panel With Surprise Guest John Barrowman

Saturday, July 20, 2013.  5:15 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. Ballroom 20.

  • A surprise guest appearance by John Barrowman (The Dark Archer/Malcolm Merlyn) on stage wearing an Arrow t-shirt.  But it appears his character is dead  although  Stephen Amell (Oliver Queen/The Hood)  left an opening: “From what everyone tells me, it’s pretty much impossible to kill you.”  Barrowman joked that if he had been invited back for season two of Arrow it would be bigger than Doctor Who’s 50th Anniversary show (to which he famously wasn’t invited).

[sz-youtube url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nkl8cmfXEOo&feature=youtu.be” /]

  • Opening and closing sizzle reel shows the highlights of season one and gives us a glimpse of season 2 premiere titled City of Heroes with an introduction to Summer Glau’s character and some footage filmed in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside of someone who looks a lot like the Black Canary. But it is only the beginning of that character’s story, producers say. This must be the epic overnight fight scene the Arrow Stunt Department spoke of. Meanwhile, Laurel Lance (Katie Cassidy) is going to start kicking butt, too. Where will this intersect?
  • Everyone seems to be shipping #Olicity — Oliver and Felicity as a couple. Emily Bett Rickards (Felcity) told the crowd that “shipping” was never part of her vocabulary before. Read More »COMIC-CON NEWS: ARROW Panel With Surprise Guest John Barrowman

SHOOT: The Hood is Back on ARROW S2. Stephen Amell Below the Hastings Overpass

The Hood is back for Arrow season two. Stephen Amell showed us why he’s the star of Arrow, even with his shirt on last Friday night. Not every actor is capable of the kind of  integrated stuntwork that Arrow does routinely. Amell is almost always part of a stunt so that it looks seamless on screen. And sometimes he does all of it, especially if the scene calls for running fast. Here are Amell and stunt double Simon Burnett talking through the night’s stunts with the Arrow Stunt Department on set below the Downtown Eastside’s Hasting Overpass.

Read More »SHOOT: The Hood is Back on ARROW S2. Stephen Amell Below the Hastings Overpass

SET: Downtown Eastside as ARROW’s Post-Earthquake The Glades

Team Arrow thwarted part of Malcolm Merlyn (The Dark Archer)’s plan to level The Glades with an earthquake device in the season one finale last May.  But not all of it. A good section was flattened causing the death of hundreds. The Glades is Starling City’s Downtown Eastside-equivalent: impoverished and riddled with hookers, pimps and drug dealers but also a community of people who aspire to something better. So it’s fitting that Raymur Street plays the post-Earthquake The Glades in the Arrow season 2 premiere.

 

Read More »SET: Downtown Eastside as ARROW’s Post-Earthquake The Glades

STUNT: ARROW S2 The Hood Stunt with Simon Burnett

The Arrow Stunt Department spent most of last Friday rehearsing  in the sunshine for an integrated stunt to be filmed later that night of star Stephen Amell and Hood stunt double Simon Burnett shooting a rope ascender arrow up in the air and then rising on the zipline several stories off the ground. I didn’t hear about the shoot until quite late because I expected Arrow to be filming on private Port Metro Vancouver land, not in the Downtown Eastside with a grandstand public view from the Hastings Overpass. It turned out to be a relatively private location though, because people don’t loiter in that part of east Hastings at night unless they’re  hookers, pimps, dealers or locals. I was mistaken for one of these by a guy in a BMW and later had a lengthy, circular conversation with one of the locals about gentrification of the neighbourhood.

From the overpass, you could look down on the crane, wires, stunt mats and dozens of people who make up the Arrow Stunt Department. Two of the men behind the best stunts on TV were present: stunt coordinator J.J.Makaro, who picked up a Leo Award for stunt coordination of the Arrow pilot last month, and fight designer James “Bam Bam” Bamford, who won his own Leo for stunt co-ordination of Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn. Arrow’s stunt department is doing double duty this season, designing stunts for Arrow and new series The Tomorrow People starring Robbie Amell, for what is being called Amell Wednesdays on The CW.

Read More »STUNT: ARROW S2 The Hood Stunt with Simon Burnett

SHOOT: Stephen Amell & ARROW Crew Wish Colton Haynes a Happy 25th Birthday

Stephen Amell and Arrow crew took a break on Friday night from rehearsing scenes for their season two premiere to wish Colton Haynes (in his Roy Harper red hoodie) a happy 25th birthday, surprising him with a big birthday cake with candles.

Arrow star Stephen Amell laughs as everyone sings Happy Birthday.

Read More »SHOOT: Stephen Amell & ARROW Crew Wish Colton Haynes a Happy 25th Birthday

LEO AWARDS: THE KILLING Season 3 Suspects Walk the Red Carpet

Each season of The Killing brings a whole new set of Vancouver actor suspects on the rain-soaked Seattle-set series. Season three introduced Ben Cotton as “Pastor” Mike who runs a shelter for street kids called Beacon Home (actually a building in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside). On screen Pastor Mike rejects the characterization of himself as a “light at the end of the tunnel” for these kids. He says he’s more like the guy trying to pull them off the tracks of  a speeding train heading towards them in the tunnel. And what’s with the tattoo “Ephesians 1:7,” on his arm. He does seem too good to be true, doesn’t he? When I suggested to Cotton on the red carpet that he might have done it — killed 17 female street kids so far — he muhuhaw-ed and stroked his chin. Don’t take that as a sign of guilt. He’s kidding. Showrunner Veena Sud doesn’t show her hand this early on.

Also in the mix, Leo favourite Ryan Robbins (with girlfriend Karyn Baltzer) who told me Saturday we’d see him on The Killing in last Sunday’s episode. And there he was. A “john”.  Robbins is Joe the Seattle cab driver whom missing girl Kallie wanted to avoid in the premiere. “Did he do something to you?” demanded her friend Bullet. There was no answer and we didn’t meet Joe until an early scene in 3×03 of Lyric on “a date” in his cab. He seems OK as far as “johns” go but definitely a suspect.

Read More »LEO AWARDS: THE KILLING Season 3 Suspects Walk the Red Carpet