Vancouver Screen Scene: Once Upon a Time, Miranda Sings, Dakota Johnson, William Shatner, and more

June 3, 2016
CT
By Craig Takeuchi
5 min read

In this week’s roundup, we take a look at a number of TV series are about to start while others are wrapping up.

Among them are some deals with the devil, particularly one that seems to resemble the gossip column headlines of a real-life A-list star.

One of the biggest local productions, Once Upon a Time, is gearing up for its next season.

The fairytale-meets-reality ABC series will start shooting its sixth season in the Lower Mainland on July 7 and will continue until March 31, 2017.

The series, which has used Steveston, B.C. (a village in the Metro Vancouver suburb of Richmond) as one of its primary shooting locations, has spent a whopping $276 million in the local economy over the past five years. Not too shabby.

If you want an insider’s guide to the series, the TV special Secrets of Storybrooke provides insider secrets about how Steveston is transformed into the fictional town of Storybrooke, Maine.

The cast, who portray fairytale characters trapped in reality by a curse, includes Ginnifer Goodwin as Snow White, Jennifer Morrison as Dark Swan, Josh Dallas as Prince Charming, Meghan Ory as Red Riding Hood, and Sean Maguire as Robin Hood.

Lucifer

Once Upon a Time will shoot its sixth season in Metro Vancouver.

Speaking of otherworldly characters taking up residence in reality, hell is coming back to town.

Lucifer launches into production of its second season on June 20.

The police procedural comedy-drama stars Tom Ellis as the Lord of Hell who abdicates his throne—out of sheer boredom—to become a police consultant and nightclub owner in L.A. Because who wouldn’t want to do that?

Shooting continues until December 1.

The Arrangement

Once Upon a Time will shoot its sixth season in Metro Vancouver.

One series that combines fairytale stories meeting reality as well as deals with the devil, see if you can figure out what real-life story The Arrangement appears to be inspired by.

In the 10-episode E! series, a young TV actress named Megan Morrison, played by Christine Evangelista (Chicago Fire), auditions for a blockbuster with one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, Kyle West portrayed by Josh Henderson (Dallas, Desperate Housewives). After Megan goes on a date with Kyle, she’s offered a $10-million contract to marry the A-lister.

However, there are hidden twists, as Kyle has a mentor and best friend who runs a mysterious cult-like organization called the Institute of the Higher Mind.

Will Megan accept this impossible mission and become the wife of this top gun despite all the risky business involved? Or will she run far and away?

We’ll have to wait and see as Season 1 starts shooting on July 25 and is scheduled to wrap up in November.

As we wait for the answer to that, let’s move on to even Darker matters.

Fifty Shades Darker star Jamie Dornan (who portrays Christian Grey in the erotic drama) has been spending time around town with his family off set, costars Dakota Johnson and Rita Ora have been spotted spending time as best friends on and off set.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BFpXbYcnaAm/

U.K. star Ora, who plays Christian Grey’s sister Mia Grey, and Johnson have been taking advantage of Vancouver’s great outdoors.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BFmm_-uHaBH/

On the much-lighter side of life, internet sensation Miranda Sings has parlayed her wildly popular YouTube videos into an eight-episode Netflix series entitled Haters Back Off.

The series explores more of the life of Colleen Ballinger-Evans’ overly confident, oddball, talent-challenged, lipstick-massacred character (who believes she was born famous), and the cast includes Angela Kinsey (NBC’s The Office) and comedian Steve Little.

Shooting wraps up in Metro Vancouver today (June 3).

Miranda Sings

Once Upon a Time will shoot its sixth season in Metro Vancouver.

Amid all of these shoots, a Canadian-born star who hit it big in a space-based series came back to our country and gave praise to a local who is making real-life discoveries about space.

Don't mess with William Shatner.

Once Upon a Time will shoot its sixth season in Metro Vancouver.

William Shatner came to Vancouver to give a talk, entitled The Curious Life, at UBC’s Chan Centre for the Performing Arts on May 28. During the speech, the former Star Trek star gave a shout-out to UBC student Michelle Kunimoto who went boldly where no astronomer had gone before and discovered four new planets outside our solar system.

Her interest in astronomy was sparked when her dad had brought home a DVD box-set of Star Trek: The Original Series when she was a teenager.

Things came full circle when she had the chance to meet Shatner while he was here and have him sign her Star Trek DVD.

So the moral of this week’s story is: if you want to catch some of your favourite shows being shot here, it’s time to beam yourself up to Vancouver. Resistance is futile. Make it so.

Vancouver Screen Scene
TV series roundup
Once Upon a Time
Miranda Sings
Dakota Johnson
William Shatner
TV shows
entertainment news