WEEK: November 11-17, 2013
Sunday, November 17th – Almost Human premieres on FOX and Global TV. In the year 2048, a traumatized Los Angeles detective John Kennex (Karl Urban)… Read More »WEEK: November 11-17, 2013
Sunday, November 17th – Almost Human premieres on FOX and Global TV. In the year 2048, a traumatized Los Angeles detective John Kennex (Karl Urban)… Read More »WEEK: November 11-17, 2013
Published June 23, 2013 on Vancouver is Awesome Season three of The Killing introduces us to a darker, seedier part of Seattle called “The Jungle” where teenage… Read More »BIG READ: THE KILLING’s Mireille Enos & Joel Kinnaman Investigate Street Kids Deaths in S3
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
Seems I was wrong about Ryan Robbins (Falling Skies, Sanctuary) and Erin Karpluk (Being Erica) being on opposite sides of the law in hacker TV movie… Read More »SHOOT: Erin Karpluk Has a Hell-Of-An Arm on Hacker TV Movie DELETE
Delete, the third in a trio of “Disaster Pack” productions filming here this summer, shot a scene at the Smile Diner on Friday night, with… Read More »SHOOT: Hacker TV Movie DELETE at Smile Diner with Ryan Robbins & Erin Karpluk – Updated
Who knew at a Falling Skies location shoot in Vancouver last November that we were seeing the last of John Pope’s Harley, destroyed by a beamer that night in a scene for last week’s second season premiere? Or that this could be our first and last chance to see a 2nd Mass resistance attack on the alien invaders using motorbikes?
Falling Skies crew turned the warehouses along Western Street near Pacific Central Station into a post-alien-invasion disaster zone dressed with ash, dried leaves, debris and overturned burnout cars for a scene of Colin Cunningham’s John Pope on his Harley rounding a corner from Northern Street onto Western Street, followed by new series regular Ryan Robbins’s Tector on a second bike. 2nd Mass’s new insurgent strategy was to ride the bikes fullout to draw fire from the aliens, so that the rest of the fighters could target the exposed Mechs and Skitters. I spotted the heads of Sarah Carter’s Maggie and Drew Roy’s Hal above the cab of the pickup truck as it headed towards watching fans on Western Street, and when they cleared out I spied Connor Jessup’s Ben and Dylan Authors’s Jimmy (someone I never thought I’d be lucky enough to see on location) in the back of the truck too. This must be the spot where the Harley was destroyed by the aliens, who’d learned to hone in on the heat of an engine. Sarah Carter’s Maggie and Drew Roy’s Hal started running in our direction carrying their prop guns, as if escaping from some kind of explosion, followed by the others, including Peter Sinkoda’s Dai and Mpho Koaho’s Anthony. I’m not familiar with the actors who play Beserkers yet.
I wish I’d stayed on in the bitter cold that night to see the beamer explosion with its blinding white flash and noise, which scared cast and crew alike, who hadn’t expected anything of that magnitude. I also missed the filming of a scene of Colin Cunningham’s John Pope shooting his gun at the sky next to his Harley in flames. Poor man.
But I can’t really complain much since Colin Cunnigham, the star of this long night shoot, took time out to come over and talk to us early on, posing for photos with everyone who wanted one.
Colin Cunningham and Ryan Robbins round the corner from Northern Street onto Western Street on motorcycles.
Read More »Farewell to John Pope’s Harley, Destroyed in FALLING SKIES Season 2 Premiere -Updated
Published May 31, 2012 on Vancouver is Awesome
Live-tweets turned out to be the best thing about last weekend’s Leo Awards celebrating the best of B.C.-made film and television. Tweets from @LeoAwards gave an award-by-award account plus details of all the hijinks in between at both the Celebration and Gala Awards: hijinks that ranged from Property Brothers Drew and Jonathan Scott mock-fighting over their award to Gala co-hosts Amanda Tapping and Robin Dunne calling each other evil twin and English MILF to Nancy Robertson and Ryan Robbins pitching a new comedy series to Emilie Ullerup re-enacting Angelina Jolie’s notorious one-leg Oscars pose to acting legend Gabrille Rose swearing on stage while presenting the final award to Sisters & Brothers for Best Feature Film.
It was a great way to let the public share in this celebration of artistic talent after a tough week, which had started with the official cancellation of homegrown sci-fi series Sanctuary, the most-recognized B.C. production by far with 18 Leo nominations going in. Sanctuary ended up winning four Leos for its fourth and final season, but only one on the night of the gala for a guest performance by Arctic Air’s Pascale Hutton, who sang beautifully and turned her head right around in the Glee-meets-The-Exorcist episode Fuge.
I’d hoped for a repeat of last year’s wild times on the red carpet outside the Hotel Vancouver on West Georgia Street, but organizers moved the red carpet inside the hotel this year to the conference floor and restricted access. Most of the nominees kept the party going after the red carpet to take a turn at the new Media Wall by the bar where I had a spot, but it was so dimly-lit I had to jack some light from the pro-photographers’ flashes. Here’s The Express’s Johanna Ward interviewing nominee and eventual winner Johannah Newmarch on the red carpet about her supporting performance in mockumentary Sunflower Hour. Ward later dropped by the Media Wall to wrangle nominees Ali Liebert from Bomb Girls and Emilie Ullerup from Arctic Air as a backdrop to her standup.
You can see the start of Emilie Ullerup’s one-leg Angelina homage and how the popular Cassini brothers photo-bombed the arrangement. That’s Frank on the left and John on the right. Frank Cassini later won a roar from the crowd and a Leo for his supporting performance on Read More »BIG READ: LEO AWARDS Live-Tweets its Hotel Vancouver Gala
For the first time in a long time, I have seen four of the feature films nominated for Leo Awards on the big screen, thanks to a Vancouver International Film Festival pass from Vancouver is Awesome dot com.
As expected, Carl Bessai’s Sisters & Brothers, the third in his trilogy about dysfunctional Vancouver families, leads the feature film nominations with twelve in total. How could it not with local talent like Corner Gas’s Gabrielle Miller and Benjaman Ratner as sister and brother; Intelligence’s Camille Sullivan and Amanda Crew as half-sisters on a road trip to L.A. with a sleezy hustler played by Tom Scholte; and The Killing’s Kacey Rohl and Leena Manro as another pair of half-sisters, whose mother is none other than local acting legend Gabrielle Rose? All eight of these B.C. actors are nominated either for lead or supporting performances in the film.