Filming in Vancouver: Jurassic World 3, Woke, and The Astronauts

It looks like Vancouver is about to revisit the Mesozoic era.

A Hollywood blockbuster full of prehistoric monstrosities will be rampaging into town this week.

To add to the fun and festivities, a bunch of kids stowaway on a spacecraft and find themselves on their own in outer space in a new TV series that starts shooting this week.

And while that one gets going, a comedy about a cartoonist who becomes socially and politically enlightened through experience finishes shooting its first season.

There’s lots happening, to say the least, in this week’s roundup of what’s filming in Vancouver’s screen scene. So for more details on all of these shows, read on, screen believers.

So first things first: here come the dinosaurs.

Jurassic World 3comes thundering into the city today (February 24) and will continue until March 6.

British Columbia is only one of the film’s shooting locations (in Metro Vancouver, production will be based in Burnaby), which will also include shoots in the U.K. and Hawaii.

Unfortunately, the plot is being kept under wraps so we can’t describe the storyline just yet.

But what we can reveal is that most of the cast from the previous films, including the original Jurassic Park series, are back on board for a reunion.

That includes Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Jake Johnson, B.D. Wong, Omar Sy, Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum.

Newcomers to the franchise will include Scott Haze, Dichen Lachman, Mamoudou Athie, and DeWanda Wise.

However, there’s quite a wait to see the final results—the movie won’t be released until June 11, 2011.

Moving into outer space (and home screens), the new TV series The Astronautsis shooting 10 episodes for its first season, having begun on February 12 and continuing until April 9.

In this live-action series for Nickelodeon, a spaceship, the Odyssey II, is preparing to launch on a mission to investigate a mysterious asteroid that is passing by the Earth.

But a group of kids who attend the lift-off manage to sneak on to the empty ship. Somehow, they accidentally initiate its launch and wind up in space without any training and a malfunctioning artificial intelligence system as their parents watch from Earth.

The youths have to become resourceful by relying upon their smarts and friendship to survive their unexpected journey.

The cast includes Miya Cech, Bryce Gheisar, Keith L. Williams, Kayden Grace Swan, and Ben Daon, with the voice of Paige Howard (as the AI system).

And the good news is that there’s not long to wait to watch this one as this series is slated to premiere this summer.

Speaking of first seasons, the Hulu series Woke will complete shooting Season 1 on Wednesday (February 25) after having started back on January 13.

This live-action comedy with animated sequences is inspired by the life of nationally published comic strip creator Keith Knight.

Lamorne Morris (New Girl) stars as Keef, a cartoonist living in San Francisco, who is on the verge of crossing over to mainstream success when an encounter with the police makes him discover what it means to be “woke”.

The cast also includes Blake Anderson, Sasheer Zamata, T. Murph, Lara Goldie, Brandi Alexander, Alvina August, and more.

And that’s it for this week. But it looks like there’s plenty more on the horizon coming this way (as well as some departures) so see you next week for more on what’s going on in Hollywood North.