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Jensen Ackles Directs Co-Star Jared Padalecki in Supernatural for Ep. 8×03

It’s deja vu all over again. Supernatural’s first location shoot of season eight is in the same area as the last location shoot of season seven — Burnaby Fraser Foreshore Park opposite Nokia headquarters, which played nefarious Sucracorp in the finale. Even when I heard Supernatural was scouting the location a week or so ago, I didn’t think they would show up here today. But there on a bridge over the Fraser River Path at lunchtime were the Winchester Brothers themselves, aka Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki, accompanied by their bodyguard Clif.

Jensen Ackles is directing the first filmed episode of the season, as he has for the past two. One of the scenes —  for what will be episode three entitled Heartache —  consisted of Jared Padalecki’s Sam Winchester calling out to “Amelia” and then running off the bridge. Played by Liane Balaban, Amelia is expected to become Sam’s first girlfriend [in a long while]. Padalecki filmed the scene on the bridge with a canine co-star, who seemed to be as confused as the rest of us about which tall man in the plaid shirt was Padalecki and which was his standin (that’s Padalecki’s standin in the first photo below)

And here’s Jared Padalecki and his director Jensen Ackles arriving on set to discuss the scene.

Read More »Jensen Ackles Directs Co-Star Jared Padalecki in Supernatural for Ep. 8×03

BIG READ: Vancouver Productions Working the Comic-Con Craziness

Published July 9th, 2012 on Vancouver is Awesome

How’s this for Comic-Con craziness? Comic-Con tweeted Twilight fans today asking them not to start lining up outside the San Diego Convention Center three days before the convention starts on Thursday like they did last year. The anual geekfest doesn’t want them to erect another Camp Twilight tent city either. Any Twihard or TwiMom who tries to line up earlier than tomorrow or brings more than a chair and a sleeping bag with them, risks not being among the six thousand-plus lucky enough to get into the final vampires & werewolves panel at lunchtime on Thursday. If asked to leave, they’ll miss seeing exclusive footage from the mainly Vancouver-shot The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn 2 and celebrity trio Kristin Stewart, Robert Pattison and Taylor Lautner in person. Organizers have scheduled the final Twilight movie as the first official panel in marquee Hall H so that Twilight teens and their Moms can’t ruin Comic-Con like they have in the past.

[Update: A Twilight fan who’d been camping outside the San Diego Convention Center since Sunday was struck and killed by an SUV on Tuesday morning while rushing to cross the street to get back to the lineup which Comic-Con organizers were moving. Fellow fans are trying to organize a moment of silence in her honour during the Breaking Dawn 2 panel.]

Once the Twihards have gone home, Comic-Con is free to fly its geek flag until Sunday night, epitomized by what could be 2012’s hottest panel — the 10th Anniversary reunion of the cast (and creator) of space western Firefly, featuring Canada’s own browncoat Nathan “Captain Tightpants” Fillion. Is cult TV once again dominating big budget movies at Comic-Con with Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead and The Big Bang Theory panels all in high demand too?

Maybe, maybe not. Iron Man 3 is a hot ticket, as are the Warner Bros./Legendary Pictures and Sony Pictures panels in Hall H. Who doesn’t want to see footage from The Hobbit, which just wrapped filming in New Zealand? Or get a first look at two other mainly Vancouver-shot movies: the upcoming Superman reboot Man of Steel starring Henry Cavill (seen below filming a shirtless green screen rescue scene in North Vancouver) as part of the Warner Bros. panel on Saturday afternoon and mysterious space station movie Elysium starring Matt Damon (link to first official photo) and Jody Foster as part of the Sony panel on Friday afternoon. Vancouver director Neill Blomkamp will be on hand with his stars to answer questions about the followup to his Oscar-nominated first feature District 9. It turns out Elysium is the name of a vast space station constructed by a company called Armadyne where the very rich live in the year 2159  (want-ads for Armadyne  popped up at last year’s Comic-Con, the start of a viral campaign for the movie). The rest of us –- the 99% if you will — live on the over-populated, ruined planet Earth below. A bald, buff  Damon is Max, who goes up against Foster as hard-line government official Minister Delacourt [corrected], who will stop at nothing to enforce anti-immigration laws and preserve the grandious lifestyle of the citizens of Elysium in space (the mansion set below on Kent Hangar field could be on the space station).

Read More »BIG READ: Vancouver Productions Working the Comic-Con Craziness

Welcome Back Baby – Look What Returns for Supernatural’s Season Seven Finale – Updated

Supernatural has been tough on the Winchester brothers and their fans in season seven, taking away so much of what they love — starting with angel-turned-God Castiel (Misha Collins) in the second episode and then Bobby (Jim Beaver) before Christmas in the heart-breaking episode ten, where the fatally-shot father figure comes out of a coma briefly for a final few moments with his beloved “idjits”. Gradually though, these loved ones are returning, albeit in different forms. Castiel is back but sadly and hilariously cuckoo-bananas after too long in the cage with Lucifer. And Bobby is back but as a ghost and a potentially vengeful one at that.

So that leaves Dean’s beloved black Impala unaccounted for, missing since Halloween when two Leviathans took on the forms of Sam and Dean to drive acoss the country in their own black Impala staging a series of public mass killings in the appropriately-titled episode six, Slash Fiction.

Ever since the Impala went into hiding, I have been looking for it each time I found Supernatural filming on location, scouting the area only to discover yet another in the series of not-the-Impalas. I did enjoy the SMD license plate on the chocolate crap-car-of-the-week though. That was a nice touch.

And let’s not forget the bright orange monstrosity driven in last Friday’s There Will Be Blood.

But enough is enough. Producers assured Jensen Ackles that the Impala would be back and it seems they saved the best for last. At a season finale shoot a month ago, not far from the Supernatural studios, look what I found parked on the road.

It was one of three Impalas on set that day. Further down the road at the Nokia head office dressed as Dick Roman’s latest acquisition Sucrocorp, the second Impala Read More »Welcome Back Baby – Look What Returns for Supernatural’s Season Seven Finale – Updated

Alpha Vampire’s Mansion in #Supernatural’s There Will Be Blood – Updated

Back in late March, I did a double take walking up Granville Street in the rain towards the Shannon Mews estate in Vancouver. All of sudden, Supernatural’s Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki rounded the corner below on scooters, turning into the lane where the extras van is waiting, on their way to their trailers parked behind the church. It was a hilarious sight, especially 6′ 4″ Padalecki astride the tiny bike. While I did have a camera in my pocket, I couldn’t get it out in time so you’ll have to imagine how funny the two Js looked riding these mini-bikes.

‘They must have used the bikes as a fun way to get to and from the shoot on the grounds of the Shannon Mews estate where they filmed scenes of Sam and Dean sitting in the orange not-the-Impala looking at the main mansion and then walking up to the front door.

And  then inside the mansion which plays the home of the Alpha Vampire (Rick Worthy) from last season. From a sneak peek, it seems that in order to kill Leviathan head Dick Roman (James Patrick Stuart), the Winchester brothers must wash a bone in the three bloods of the fallen: the blood from a fallen angel, which could be Castiel (Misha Collins)’s; the blood from the ruler of fallen humanity, which could be Crowley (Mark Sheppard)’s; and the blood from the father of fallen beasts, which could be the Alpha Vampire’s from last season’s Live Free or Twihard, the first episode of Supernatural I ever saw being filmed.

Read More »Alpha Vampire’s Mansion in #Supernatural’s There Will Be Blood – Updated

Spoilers from #Supernatural Season Seven Finale Scenes in Gastown – Updated

It seems Bobby Singer is still angry with Dick Roman, the Leviathon CEO, for shooting him dead. Supernatural filmed a season finale scene last night in Gastown of Jim Beaver as Bobby staring at a Dick Roman news item on an array of flat screen TVs for sale in the window of an electronics store set.

Across Carrell Street outside the Blarney Stone, a dozen fans watched the filming, spinning theories about what we were seeing. We think it’s ghost Bobby not a come-back-to-life Bobby, but it’s only a guess. We’ll have to wait for the season finale to air to find out.

In between takes, some watched the Vancouver Canucks lose their first playoff game on the big screen inside the pub. I retreated to the back of the Coffee Bar at 12 Water Street to warm up, dry out, and use wifi. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a handsome man in blue come out of the Boneta Restaurant to talk on his phone in the inner courtyard. It was Misha Collins, dining where Supernatural had set up a holding area for background performers in the late shoot, even though crew said he had no scenes that night.

Later he and his companion walked past the electronics store set to chat with crew and Jim Beaver. And as only I can do, I took a photo of Misha Collins where I’m the only who knows he’s in it (he’s one of the shadowy figures on the right).

While it was great to see Jim Beaver on set again, we were hoping for the return of something else too — the Impala. Read More »Spoilers from #Supernatural Season Seven Finale Scenes in Gastown – Updated