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PROMOS: ONCE UPON A TIME 2×12 In the Name of the Brother Photos – Updated

Dr. Victor Frankenstein (David Anders)’s black-and-white world of horrors returns in flashbacks on next Sunday’s Once Upon a Time, as he tries to convince his father Alphonse (Gregory Itzin) that he can resurrect the dead. Does this have something to do with the doctor’s brother (Chad Michael Collins)? Meanwhile, in present-day Storybrooke, Dr. Whale (also David Anders) must perform surgery on the Outsider (Ethan Embrey) who crashed across the town border at the end of last night’s episode. What’s to be done with him?

Here’s the ABC logline:

While Dr. Whale treats the outsider, the townspeople decide what to do with the man who may know Storybrooke’s secret. Meanwhile, Cora meets with her daughter and Gold tries to meet with Belle. In another world, Victor tries to convince his father Alphonse that he can bring back the dead.

And here are some promo stills of Rumple/Mr. Gold (Robert Carlyle), Snow/Mary Margaret (Ginnifer Goodwin) and Charming/David (Josh Dallas) at the Storybrooke border trying to comfort a frightened Belle (Emilie de Ravin) with no memories of any of them.

Credit: ABC/JACK ROWAND
Credit: ABC/JACK ROWAND

Read More »PROMOS: ONCE UPON A TIME 2×12 In the Name of the Brother Photos – Updated

PROMOS: Who is Dr. Whale? ONCE UPON A TIME 2×05 The Doctor Spoiler Promo

So many of us were keeping the secret of Dr. Whale’s Fairytale Land identity on Once Upon a Time, not wanting to ruin the surprise. Too late. The promo for next Sunday’s The Doctor gave it away. Or as David Anders tweeted: “Hello Fans all over the globe & Bulgaria! Tune in next week 2 #OnceuponaTime 4 ‘The Doctor’ The promo ruined it but watch it anyway. Oy vey.”

In late July, an insider let slip Dr. Whale’s Fairytale Land identity to a friend of mine when she was on set in Steveston during the filming of the season two premiere and six weeks later in early September, I was one of the privileged few (along with half-a-dozen visiting Evil Regal fans from all over the U.S.) allowed to watch the filming of Lana Parrilla as a young woman in a tent deep in the woods of Robert Burnaby Park with David Anders as his Fairytale Land character apparently trying to re-animate a male corpse (played by a dummy when I was there).

A week earlier, fans in Steveston as Storybrooke had witnessed the ghostly appearance of Regina’s lost love Daniel in a rainstorm. A Daniel stunt double bore the brunt of the deluge but some are convinced they saw Noah Bean on set that night too.

If you still haven’t figured out Dr. Whale’s Fairytale Land identity and really don’t want to know, please stop reading now.

Read More »PROMOS: Who is Dr. Whale? ONCE UPON A TIME 2×05 The Doctor Spoiler Promo

PHOTO RECAP: ONCE UPON A TIME’s Storybrooke Scenes in 2×02 We Are Both

We Are Both opens with the Seven Dwarfs testing the Storybrooke town limits and discovering that if one of them crosses the border their cursed self becomes their only self, as Sneezy forgets he was ever a Dwarf.

Next we see the damage the Wraith caused in Storybrooke in an overhead pan of downed telephone poles, blownout windows, overturned cars and uprooted pavement, filmed on Moncton Street in Steveston south of Vancouver.

And we see a populace in relief mode, handing out blankets, bottles of water and toilet paper at the Storybrooke Town Hall, filmed in Fort Langley.

Charming/David (Josh Dallas) takes charge at the Storybrooke Town Hall, promising his grandson Henry (Jared Gilmore) and everyone else that he will come up with a plan to fix everything, but he’s really more concerned with finding a way to get back his wife and daughter — Snow White and Emma Swan — who fell through a portal opened by a magic hat in the season premiere.

Read More »PHOTO RECAP: ONCE UPON A TIME’s Storybrooke Scenes in 2×02 We Are Both

SHOOT: ONCE UPON A TIME Makes Rain & Lightning in Steveston for 2×05 – Updated

On a clear, warmish Thursday night in Steveston south of Vancouver, Once Upon a Time made rain and lightning as Lana Parrilla drove Regina’s vintage Mercedes to the main intersection of Storybrooke in take after take. Fans lined both sides of Moncton Street to watch and cheered when Josh Dallas came by to say Hello. The lovely woman beside me with the iPhone couldn’t contain herself, calling out, “You’re so cute.” Which he is. And real-life charming too. Fans also got to see [an unidentified double in the Daniel costume who I assumed was Noah Bean because he was on set later in the dark when we were asked not to take photographs of the scene. My apologies for the confusion.].

And then the main event: the biggest rain tower I’ve ever seen deluged Regina’s Mercedes with water again and again.

Once Upon a Time had spent the afternoon filming scenes on Moncton Street in front of Granny’s Diner and inside Mr. Gold, while other crew Read More »SHOOT: ONCE UPON A TIME Makes Rain & Lightning in Steveston for 2×05 – Updated

YVRSHOOT: Magic Makes a Big Mess of Steveston’s Moncton Street in ONCE UPON A TIME 2×02

Magic has made a big mess of Main Street in Storybrooke (played by Moncton Street in Steveston south of Vancouver) for modern-day fairy tale series Once Upon a Time in episode two of the second season. Main Street is a disaster zone, with uprooted ashphalt, overturned and smashed-up cars, a downed telephone pole, blown-out windows, and the hull of a boat near the main intersection. Fortunately, the many local fans of the show could see some main cast alive and well amid the debris on the artfully-destroyed street.

Meghan Ory, Lee Arenberg and the Evil Queen herself, Lana Parrilla, did some early morning scenes, leaving the afternoon for Josh Dallas to chase a Mad Hat (see if you can spot the black top hat in the photos below) east along the street and then into the alley next to Storybrooke Country Bread. Dallas ran and ran and ran all afternoon in stages, and then met with fans at the finish. As I’ve said before, he’s a Prince Charming in real life, too.

When I returned in the evening, it looked like Josh Dallas was in for another bout of running, but to chase the Mad Hatter himself, Sebastian Stan, not a Mad Hat. Stan soaked his shirt with perspiration running west down the street in the evening heat. Why was he running from Charming? It seems the Mad Hatter knows something about the whereabouts of Ginnifer Goodwin’s Snow White and Jennifer Morrison’s Emma Swan, who are nowhere to be seen in Storybrooke. What’s happened to them? We’ll have to wait until season two begins airing to find out.

I don’t know how Once Upon a Time filmed so many scenes and managed the hundreds of fans who flocked to set all day and evening long. Read More »YVRSHOOT: Magic Makes a Big Mess of Steveston’s Moncton Street in ONCE UPON A TIME 2×02

BIG READ: ONCE UPON A TIME is Fall TV’s Biggest New Drama Hit

Published December 9, 2011 on Vancouver is Awesome

Modern fairy tale series Once Upon a Time is American TV’s biggest new fall drama, putting the fictional town of Storybrooke, Maine, on the map. Normally played by Moncton Street in the village of Steveston, pieces of Storybrooke can pop up anywhere in the Vancouver area from Fort Langley to New Westminster to North Vancouver. For its October 23rd debut, the freshman show commanded an amazing 13 million American viewers and the next three episodes stayed steady at 11 milliion. On the American Thanksgiving weekend, an episode held its own against Sunday night football. And while last Sunday’s Prince Charming episode marked a series low, the hashtag #OnceUponaTime topped worldwide trending on Twitter during the broadcast. So it’s much more than a family show — the 18-49 demos are great too. Tune in this Sunday for the Fall Finale.

Created by Lost writers Eddy Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, Once Upon a Time airs on ABC, whose Disney parent company owns the rights to most of the world’s fairy tales. That’s essential since the show mixes reality and fantasy from present-day-but-frozen-in-time Storybrooke to flashbacks of a fairy tale world lost when the Evil Queen cursed all the fairy tale characters to spend their lives in the real world without getting happy endings or even knowing their true identities. Prince Charming (Josh Dallas of Thor) and Snow White (Ginnifer Goodwin of Big Love)’s daughter Emma Swan (Jennifer Morrison of House) has grown up in the real world without knowing her fairy tale parents. When Henry (Jared Gilmore), the son Emma gave up for adoption a decade earlier, finds her and begs her to come back with him to Storybrooke to break the curse. things start to change — but not too quickly we hope.

In a delicious twist, the Evil Queen happens to be Henry’s adoptive mother and Storybrooke mayor Regina (Lana Parrilla) in the real world, someone who does not want Henry’s real mother in town at all. I have watched a few Regina vs Emma confrontations being filmed already, the latest in an epic windstorm at Garry’s Point in Steveston last month. Henry’s castle had been damaged and I’m not alone in suspecting Regina is behind it. Be warned: there are mild to medium spoilers throughout this post.

I wrote about the filming of the Once Upon a Time pilot and Evil Queen-centric second episode for my YVRShoots series in the summer. I’ve since learned more about how the fairy tale world scenes are created using revolutionary Z.E.U.S. visual effects technology. If you looked through the camera lense or on the director/producer monitors during filming of the wedding of Prince Charming to Snow White in the pilot, you’d have seen a detailed ballroom wedding scene rendered in real time while elaborately-costumed Josh Dallas and Ginnifer Goodwin performed on a mostly empty green screen stage with costumed extras. Read More »BIG READ: ONCE UPON A TIME is Fall TV’s Biggest New Drama Hit