"V" For Vancouver And A Sucker Punch Teaser
by Cassandra Faust
Well, it's been awhile and the film industry in Vancouver has taken its lumps during the recession but things are starting to get underway again and I thought I'd share a few snippets of what's going on with a couple of productions here in the city.
First up is the re-imagined V. For those of you who don't recall, V was series back in the 1980s telling the tale of aliens coming to Earth supposedly to be our friends but in reality were the opposite. That series starred Robert Englund who you might remember better as the original Freddy Kruger.
This new version stars Elizabeth Mitchell (Lost), Joel Gretsch, (Minority Report), Scott Wolf (Party of Five) among others.
As the new V series premieres on November 3rd, what better time to tell you about the day of shooting I got to be part of for the first episode.
A downtown church was the location and there were 25 of us extras divided into 3 groups. The first consisted of church staff, the second of church volunteers loading food for a food drive and the last group were just passersby outside.
Inside the church was very cramped with all the equipment and crew and it was a tight squeeze while we waited to be placed in the scene. While I was waiting my placement, I took a look at the prop boxes of food that had been donated for the story and on top of one of the boxes were three tins of "BIG GIANT" peas!
That brought back memories, let me tell you! You see, BIG GIANT was the brand of beans Rorschach is eating in Dan Dreiberg's kitchen! These empty tins of peas were old WATCHMEN PROPS! Nice to see they are still useful. Also the famous New York backlot is currently being used for Supernatural. So keep a sharp eye out WATCHMEN fans for some familiar landmarks.
The premise for this episode of V concerns the "Visitors" coming to Earth and being embraced by all of mankind to the extent that speaking out against them makes one an outcast. But some have learned the secret of the Visitors and are doing just that. One man, known to Father Landry (Gretsch) is murdered shortly after speaking out. An FBI agent, played by Rekha Sharman (Battlestar Galactica) is investigating the murder but also wants to speak with Landry about the secret of the visitors. This has to be done hush-hush as the world is in the throes of visitor love. In the scene we extras got to be part of, she encounters Father Landry, as he is busy with the food drive, with some questions regarding the death and the aliens among us. Landry is cagey at first, not wanting to implicate himself, and wonders why the FBI would be interested in the death of a small time "nut" speaking out against the visitors. But he soon learns that the Federal Agent shares his fears and he has found a kindred spirit with which to share his concerns.
Another large scale, highly anticipated film being shot here is Sucker Punch, written and directed by Zack Snyder. I've yet to crack this all-female cast - what's a girl gotta do! - but I have picked up a couple of tidbits you all might be interested in.
We all know the basic premise: a young girl in a mental hospital because of her evil stepfather retreats into fantasy worlds to escape the pain of reality. Well, it appears that in these alternate realities she, and her female cohorts, get to kick some major weird butt. In one scene they are attacked by a group of WWI German zombie soldiers kept alive by some sort of gas fed to them from tanks on their backs through clear masks stitched to their faces. Armed with vintage WWI weapons these baddies don't stand a chance against the ladies packing futuristic weapons. In another scene the ladies tangle with Orcs, only these are giant lizard-like people. They, too, get their butts handed to them by the fire-power packing females.
Well, that's about it for now. I'll keep my eyes and ears open until next time.
Who Is Cassandra Faust? Back in November of 2007, Comic Related was introduced to an individual who works in the film industry. This individual, who called herself Cassandra Faust, was good enough to share an ongoing series of first hand reports direct from the set of the Watchmen film. She's continued sharing additional information even after the close of production. Ms. Faust worked as an extra during the filming and offered a great summary of what she witnessed during the creation of that landmark comic film. As she journey's on to other products, she returns from time to time to drop a mix of fun behind-the-scenes tidbits.
Check out the full history of Cassandra's set reports here!
blog comments powered by Disqus