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PHOTO RECAP: Of Steveston Scenes in ONCE UPON A TIME 1×19 — Updated

We’ve been specualating for a while that Eion Bailey’s August W. Booth, aka The Stranger, could be Rumplestiltskin’s long-lost son Baelfire. It turns out he’s not, but Robert Carlyle’s Rumpelstiltskin/Mr.Gold has some hope early on in episode nineteen called The Return.

It opens with a seemingly-disabled August struggling to get out of bed and to walk. He meets up with Jared Gilmore’s Henry across the street from Mr. Gold’s Pawn Shop, asking for the boy’s help in “accelerating the plan” while pretending it’s part of Operation Cobra. “We’re a go,” he says as Henry runs into Mr. Gold’s to buy a gift for Miss Blanchard “since she didn’t kill that woman” (one of the funniest scenes is the accompanying “We’re glad you didn’t kill Mrs. Nolan” card from her class), while August searches Mr. Gold’s back office. I saw them film the exterior scenes in a mid-February downpour in Steveston dressed as Storybrooke, and then move inside Mr. Gold’s for interior scenes with Robert Carlyle.

Once Upon a Time intercut these scenes with the fairytale world where Bae tries to get his now clearly evil father Rumple to return to his original self, untainted by magic. They make a deal that if Bae can find a way to rid him of the Dark One’s powers, his father will go along with it.

Back in Storybrooke, a suspicious Mr. Gold decides to follow August out of town to the local convent. That’s Eion Bailey on the motor bike below but his stunt double rode it down the Moncton Street in Steveston. And that’s Mr. Gold’s ride, the big Cadillac parked outside his pawn shop.

Bae obtains a special bean from the Blue Fairy which will open a portal to a land without magic where his father will have no dark powers. But when Rumple sees the gigantic swirling vortex he loses his nerve, reneging on his deal Read More »PHOTO RECAP: Of Steveston Scenes in ONCE UPON A TIME 1×19 — Updated

The-Hunger-Games-Meets-The-Bachelor TV pilot THE SELECTION

If TV pilot The Selection is The Hunger Games meets The Bachelor, as described by TV Guide, does that mean that The Selection bachelorettes will fight each other to the death? Aimee Teegarden (Friday Night Lights) stars as a poor girl chosen by lottery to enter a fierce competition to marry the Prince and become the next Queen of a war-torn nation far in the future. I didn’t see Amy Teegarden as America Singer, William Mosely as servant Aspen or Ethan Peck as Prince Maxim on set, but did visit all of their shooting locations. And eventually managed to photograh Pieta Sergeant below as rebel leader Gaia.

On the first day of filming, The Selection set up a village market inside the Terminal City Ironworks complex in east Vancouver with Aimee Teegarden on set as young America Singer. I dropped by too early to see the market scene, catching a glimpse through an open gate of prop wagons and stalls still covered in plastic.

Scenes of America saying goodbye to her village were shot over three days at the Britannia Heritage Shipyards in Steveston, captured beautifully by commercial photographer Clayton Perry in his The Selection photoset on Flickr. In  Perry’s photos you can see villager extras holding up hand-lettered signs on cardboard reading: Queen America, We Love You America, Make us Proud, America Our Next Queen. William Mosley’s Aspen was also on set but when I dropped by the filming was behind one of the xxx.

To depict the war-torn country, The Selection went north on the Sea to Sky highway to the Squamish Municipal Airport for scenes of fighting with Royal forces on an airport runway. I zoomed in but couldn’t pick out Peta Sergeant on set as the rebel leader fighting the Head of the Military.

Scenes from the royal palace must have been filmed at Hycroft, the University Women’s Club in Shaughnessy,Read More »The-Hunger-Games-Meets-The-Bachelor TV pilot THE SELECTION

ABC TV Pilot RED WIDOW About Russian Mob – Updated

ABC pilot Red Widow, inspired by a popular Dutch TV series, is about a San Francisco mobster’s widow forced to replace her husband as head of what appears to be a Russian crime syndicate, judging from the filming at Lana Lou’s restaurant dressed as Cafe Rossiya in Vancouver’s downtown east side last month.

Australian Radha Mitchell stars as the widow Marta who takes her mobster husband’s place to protect her family, with Sterling Beaumon and Jacob Salvati as her sons and Erin Moriarty as her daughter. Luke Goss (Hellboy II) plays bodyguard to her mob father Andrei Lazarev, a bodyguard who is then assigned to look after her and the kids. Lee Tergesen (Oz) plays a foot soldier in the crime syndicate and Suleka Mathew (Hawthorne) is Marta’s best friend Dina, while Jaime Ray Newman is Marta’s younger sister Kat.

Read More »ABC TV Pilot RED WIDOW About Russian Mob – Updated

YVRShoots Series – Making of THIS MEANS WAR in Vancouver

Published February 27, 2012 on Vancouver is Awesome

Thanks to real bro chemistry between Chris Pine (Star Trek reboot’s Captain Kirk) and Tom Hardy (Bane in upcoming The Dark Night Rises), the bromance in This Means War works much better than the actual romance, which flounders on the premise that Reese Witherspoon’s character is so supremely attractive that these two men would risk their friendship to war over her. Witherspoon is beautiful and an acclaimed actress but she’s miscast in this role. On the other hand, I had no problem with the idea of blending of action, romance and comedy — if done well — in a story of spy versus spy, who use their CIA resources against each other after they discover they’ve fallen for the same woman. But the execution of this movie felt choppy and clumsy in both writing and editing, as if three different movies had been spliced into one.

That might have been the case, judging from the number of Vancouver scenes cut in editing, including the ones I photographed below in Yaletown and North Vancouver’s Lonsdale Quay Market, as well as some at Gastown’s Incendio restaurant. Director McG (in my Yaletown photo with Tom Hardy & Reese Witherspoon) even shot three alternate endings to the romance, including a fun “homoerotic” one of Pine and Hardy in each other’s arms and Witherspoon with nobody — which I might have preferred.

This Means War opens with a spectacular action sequence on the roof of the Bentall 4 tower in Vancouver as Hong Kong. CIA agents and best buds FDR Foster (Chris Pine) and Tuck Hensen (Tom Hardy) are on a mission to stop arms dealer Heinrich, played by Til Schweiger of Inglorious Basterds fame, from acquring a WMD at a fancy hotel rooftop party. Read More »YVRShoots Series – Making of THIS MEANS WAR in Vancouver