Related: Godzilla invades Once Upon a Time’s Storybrooke, aka Steveston.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson jumps out of the truck.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson peeks his head out of the truck.

Godzilla? Yup. Two spheres on opposite ends of a pole represent the famous Japanese monster.

U.S. military backgrounders outside what used to be Mr. Gold’s Pawnbroker in Storybrooke.

Neighbour’s, aka Splash Toys, becomes the Wood Eagle Bar. And the windows decorated with flyers for upcoming bands: Fumgi Attack!, Japan Only, Fatal Treatment and Failure & Death.

Granny’s Diner, aka the Cannery Cafe, becomes the Taqueria Bosque.

• Sunday, May 19th – RoboCop starring Joel Kinnaman wraps its fourth & final day (May 16-19) in the Washington Building at Vancouver Shipyards in North Vancouver, Standoff between heroes and villains with simulated gunfire. You could hear the pop, pop, pop sound nearby.
• Saturday, May 18th – Lexus commercial films in downtown Business District.
• Friday, May 17th – Amanda Tapping directs Continuum on Cambie St. and Arch Alley downtown. First a scene with Stephen Lobo and Magda Apanowicz on Cambie. And then a scene with Victor Webster and a corpse in the gravel parking lot off Arch  Alley.
• Friday, May 17th – Globe and Mail: Election upset has BC Film industry reeling over lost taxbreaks
• Friday, May 17th – Lifetime series Witches of East End,starring Julia Ormond, back on BC Production List. New filming dates:  July 16 to October 21. 
• Thursday, May 16th - Godzilla terrorizes Steveston for third night shoot on docks dressed as San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf.
• Thursday, May 16th – Vancouver whydunit Motive season finale airs on CTV with Amanda Tapping guest starring as hot psychologist. Crime scene filmed in David Lam Park in Yaletown.
• Thursday, May 16th – YVRShoots Series – Four filmed-in-Vancouver American pilots Once Upon a Time in Wonderland, Almost Human with Karl Urban & Michael Ealy, Intelligence with Josh Holloway and The 100 make it to series. But will they all shoot in Vancouver?
• Thursday, May 16th – The CW Upfront: The CW becomes the Amell network with cousins Arrow star Stephen Amell & Tomorrow People star Robbie Amell on stage and sharing a childhood photo to a chorus of Awwwws from the audience. The network plans to break up Supernatural and Arrow on Wednesday nights by moving the Winchesters to Tuesdays at 9 p.m. and replacing them with Tomorrow People, a new show which may shift production to Vancouver. But picked up series The 100 is not expected to air until 2014. Here’s a trailer filmed in local forest.
• Thursday May 16th – Continuum films inside CBC Vancouver. Episode directed by Amanda Tapping.
• Thursday, May 16th – The Killing films at Riverview.
• Thursday May 16th – Falling Skies showrunner Remi Aubuchon announces he’s stepping down. David Eick from Battlestar Galactica will take over for season four.
• Wednesday, May 15th – Godzilla in Steveston. Night shoot on docks dressed as San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf.
• Wednesday, May 15th – Supernatural season eight finale. Angels fall from Heaven.
• Wednesday, May 15th – Arrow‘s epic season finale. Throughout the taut episode almost every character looked like he/she was about to sacrifice themselves but ultimately Tommy (Colin Donnell) was the one who does, sacrificing himself to save the woman he loved, Lauren (Katie Cassidy). Archer showdown between Emerald Archer (Stephen Amell/stunt double) & Dark Archer (John Barrowman/stunt double) on Hudson’s Bay roof downtown. The Glades was played mainly by the old Watchmen set in Burnaby.
• Wednesday, May 15th – Psych 7×12 airs on the USA Network.
• Wednesday, May 15th – Rogue 1×09 with Thandie Newtown and Marton Csoskas airs on DirecTV and Movie Central.
• Wednesday, May 15th – CBS Upfront: Preview of Intelligence with Josh Holloway, Marg Helgenberger and Meghan Ory scheduled to air in 2014 on Monday nights. But CBS passes on TV pilot Backstrom with Rainn Wilson.
• Wednesday, May 15th – TNT Upfront: Noah Wyle & Moon Bloodgood from Falling Skies; Jon Tenney & Rebecca Romijn from King & Maxwell make appearances.
• Wednesday, May 15th – Continuum films inside CBC Vancouver. Episode directed by Amanda Tapping.
• Tuesday, May 14th – Godzilla terrorizes Steveston, aka Storybrooke in a day shoot with Aaron Taylor-Johnson and 200 U.S. soldier extras in the middle of Moncton Street. Night shoot on docks dressed as San Franscisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf
• Tuesday, May 14th – BC election upset for BC Film industry with Premier Christy Clark and the BC Liberals winning a majority — a government on record that it will not match incentives with the provinces of Ontario and Quebec, where film & TV production has shifted in the past five years.
• Tuesday, May 14th – ABC Upfront: Trailer for Once Upon a Time in Wonderland on ABC schedule on Thursdays at 8 p.m. And news that Once Upon a Time season three will air in two batches of episodes bridged by a reality TV series.
• Tuesday, May 14th – TV Line reports Michael Raymond-James upped to series regular for Once Upon a Time season 3.
• Tuesday May 14th – TV Guide interview with Meghan Ory about trading Joshs. Josh Dallas for Josh Holloway. A move from Once Upon a Time to Intelligence.
• Monday, May 13th – Bates Motel 1×09 Norma (Vera Farmiga) wants to leave town but can’t since the motel is virtually worthless. Meantime, Mr. Abernathy threatens  Norma because he believes she has the money Deputy Sheriff Shelby owed him
• Monday, May 13th – Six of the Top Ten Finalists for film accelerator CineCoup ‘s $1 million in financing are Vancouver projects: Alien Abduction. Bad.  Grade Nine. Scam. The Fall, The Man and the Mountain.
• Monday, May 13th – Part Three of Top 20 Action Moments chosen by Fight Designer James “Bam Bam” Bamford. Top Five includes huge Parkour Sequence (extreme free running) filmed in Gastown with Stephen Amell and stunt double Simon Burnett.
• Monday, May 13th – FOX Upfront: Trailer for Almost Human with Karl Urban and Michael Ealy introduced at Upfront with the J.J. Abrams/Joel Wyman drama scheduled for Monday nights after the World Series.
• Monday, May 13th – NBC Upfront: NBC passes on TV pilot Victor with John Stamos.
• Monday, May 13th - Godzilla films at Massey Heights house in New Westminster. Bryan Cranston on set?
• Monday, May 13th – BC creative talent sends slew of congratulatory tweets about Leo Awards nominations.

Are there zombies in this episode? Here is Amanda Tapping directing Victor Webster as Detective Carlos Fonnegra  yesterday looking at corpse in the trunk of a car parked in the gravel lot off Arch Alley. Or as Webster tweeted: “I’m examining a decomposing corpse covered in maggots in an alley full of garbage and grafitti. What did you do today?” The makeup actually seems more The Walking Dead than Continuum. Fun.

The corpse in the trunk gets a touchup.

Continuum will air a repeat this Sunday because of the Victoria Day long weekend in Canada.

Here is Vancouver’s Sci-fi Queen directing a scene this afternoon from the video village in Arch Alley east of Victory Square. After each take Tapping strode out to talk to the actors Stephen Lobo and Magda Apanowicz, and to crew and then briskly walked back to the alley again in her riding boots. Still very much the ageless Helen Magnus of her long-running series Sanctuary.

Amanda Tapping in the director’s chair.

The scene wrapped when Tapping came out and did two-arm fist pump to thank crew.

Continuum season two airs Sundays at 9 pm ET/PT on Showcase in Canada.

Five American broadcast networks unveiled their fall plans in New York this week and four of the seven TV drama pilots and one TV presentation we saw filming in Vancouver this spring made the cut for next season. Once Upon a Time ’s Victorian-era spinoff Once Upon a Time in Wonderland is scheduled for Thursday nights on ABC. While Almost Human, starring Karl Urban (Star Trek’s Bones) and Michael Ealy as futuristic human and android police partners, will air Monday nights on FOX after the World Series. Intelligence starring Josh Holloway (Lost’s Sawyer) as “The Six Billion Dollar Man” will debut on CBS on Monday nights next year. And post-apocalyptic The 100 about a hundred juvenile delinquents sent back to Earth from space almost a hundred years after nuclear disaster is slated for early 2014 on The CW. Not a bad outcome, considering there were  fifty odd drama pilots vying for thirty prime time slots this year (double the 15 drama openings  from last year after a slew of cancellations including locally-filmed Emily Owens, M.D., Cult and Red Widow).

Unfortunately, even in a big year for new dramas, some star vehicles didn’t make the cut. Uncle Jessie won’t be returning to film in Vancouver anytime soon. John Stamos (Full House/ER)’s  pilot Victor stayed in the mix until the end but NBC opted not to put the drama about a high-powered L.A. divorce attorney, who helps his clients find new faith in life, on its schedule.

Nor will Dwight Schrute be back. CBS held onto Rainn Wilson (The Office)’s pilot Backstrom in round after round of cuts but ultimately passed on the drama about a Portland detective version of Dr. House — self-destructive, offensive, irascible and brilliant.Perhaps it’s too soon for a new House, even one who’s not a doctor.

Vancouver remains popular for American shows because of its beautiful land and cityscapes which can look like anywhere U.S.A. and great, professional crews but this week’s election is a blow to the BC film industry.Premier Christy Clark in on record saying her government will not match incentives with the provinces of Ontario and Quebec, where film and TV production has shifted in the last five years. Will some of these new green-lit pilots choose to film their series elsewhere where it’s cheaper?

Let’s hope they all stay here. Once Upon a Time in Wonderland is the big surprise of the Upfronts. Originally pitched as a bridge between batches of episodes of the mother show Once Upon a Time on Sundays, crew filmed only five scenes in Vancouver to present to network executives. But the finished trailer looks so magical that it boosted what was conceived as a spinoff to its own slot on Thursday nights at 8 p.m. on ABC. Set in Victorian England, poor Alice (Sophie Lowe) is trapped in an insane asylum muttering about mermaids, mushrooms, pirates and her lost love Cyrus (Peter Godiat) until she is rescued by the Knave of Hearts (Michael Socha) and the White Rabbit (voiced by John Lithgow). Will there be some intersections with Fairy Tale Land, Neverland or Storybrooke? The other ABC pilot Big Thunder, a 19th century western based on a popular Disney ride and filmed mainly in Maple Ridge and Squamish, did not get picked up.

FOX pilot Almost Human came to Vancouver with an excellent pedigree. From J. J. Abrams and Fringe showrunner Joel Wyman it paid homage to its smart predecessor in so many ways. The production used many of the former Vancouver Fringe crew as well as its production signs BELLY. Some of the set dressing looked familiar too, with futuristic kiosks like Quick Volt electric car stations and Quick Stands offering everything from Experience Enhancers to Intellect Expanders and Synthetic Pets observed. The pilot filmed for three weeks here in familiar Fringe locations from the downtown business district to Gastown’s Winters Hotel to under the Cambie Bridge to the Terminal City Ironworks complex dressed like a Blue Light district.

But now Almost Human is a show in its own right. And a surprisingly funny one at that , with sardonic John Kennex (Karl Urban), a man not fond of  the “synthetics”, trashing one and ending up partnered with  Dorian (Michael Ealy), an android who has more emotions than he does. A buddy cop duo for the future.

CBS pilot Intelligence about an American government agent Gabriel (Josh Holloway) with a super-computer microchip in his brain that makes him the smartest smart phone ever is another VFX-heavy show. Something Vancouver does extremely well. But this agent who can hack into anything is reckless and unpredictable so the head of the government cyber-security agency Lillian Strand (Marg Helgenberger of CSI) assigns secret service agent Riley Neal (Meghan Ory from Once Upon a Time) to protect him from himself and others. The pilot filmed all over Vancouver but was spotted only a couple of times on location. Crew told me most places were chosen for their privacy.

The CW pilot The 100 also proved hard to find on location. Based on an upcoming book series, it’s about a hundred juvenile delinquents sent back to Earth from space almost a hundred years after nuclear  war to see if the planet is habitable. And judging from a clip filmed in one of  our local forests, at least part of the planet has recovered nicely. Can they re-colonize? Only the pretty ones survive, joked Television Without Pity. The other CW pilot that filmed here Blink — about a girl whose father is in a coma — did not get picked up.

But there are rumours that another CW pickup Tomorrow People might shift production to Vancouver, reuniting Arrow and  Tomorrow People stars Stephen and Robbie Amell here. The cousins shared a childhood photo on stage at today’s Upfront  to a chorus of awwws from the audience.

Only the pretty ones survive, joked Television without Pity. The filmed-in-Vancouver show has plenty of them: Eliza Taylor, Isaiah Washington (Grey’s Anatomy), Henry Ian Cusick (Lost), Marie Avgeropoulos (below), Paige Turco, Kelly Hu (Arrow), Christopher Larkin, and Thomas McDonell. 

Bob Morely and Marie Avgeropoulos. Photo: Cate Cameron/The CW. 2013 The CW Network.

Emerald Archer vs Dark Archer for the season finale.

A late April rehearsal of Hudson’s Bay rooftop fight scene at dusk in downtown Vancouver, part of Arrow’s final shoot of the season.

Arrow has been building to the ultimate showdown between Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) and Malcolm Merlyn (John Barrowman)’s alter egos for much of the season. Is this it? If so, who will be victorious? It didn’t look good for The Hood from my vantage high above in the Vancouver Lookout at Harbour Centre (often featured in Arrow cityscapes).

Rehearsing catching one of the Hood’s arrows.

Setting up for Diggle crawling up staircase.

Arrow’s season finale airs tonight at 8 p.m. on The CW in the U.S. and 7 p.m. on CTV in Canada.

No argument from me. Arrow has my favourite fight scenes and stunts on TV.

Arrow Fight Designer James “Bam Bam” Bamford recently presented a Top 20 Action Moments Countdown in three videos. Absent are any sequences from tonight’s season finale so there is no spoiler alert.

The Top 5 includes my personal favourite- the huge Parkour Sequence with Stephen Amell and stunt double Simon Burnett filmed in Gastown.

Related: Stephen Amell Jumps to Street, Slides over Cab and Runs Right at Me

From 6 to 13 includes the free climbing by stunt double Simon Burnett in a downtown alley.

Related: Stephen Amell on Wall in Downtown Alley

And from 14 to 20 includes the Deathstroke vs Slade fight, as in Double the Deathstrokes, Double the Fun.

Stunt coordinator  J. J. Makaro earned two Leo Awards nominations on Sunday, one for the pilot and the other for Vertigo.

Arrow’s season finale airs tonight at 8 p.m. on The CW in the U.S. and 7 p.m. on CTV.

CBS dubbed its new filmed-in-Vancouver series Intelligence “The Six Billion Dollar Man” today, a play on the 1970s hit The Six Million Dollar Man about an American government agent Steve Austin (Lee Majors) with bionic parts. It’s an apt comparison.

Intelligence is about an American government agent Gabriel (Josh Holloway from Lost) with a super-computer microchip in his brain, one that makes him the smartest smart phone ever. Unfortunately this human with an ability to hack into anything is also reckless and unpredictable so the head of the government cyber-security agency Lillian Strand (Marg Helgenberger of CSI) assigns secret service agent Riley Neal (Meghan Ory from Once Upon a Time) to protect him from himself and others. 

Josh Holloway & Meghan Ory Credit: Chris Helcermanas-Benge © 2013 CBS Broadcasting, Inc.

Intelligence filmed its pilot in Vancouver for three weeks this spring. Here’s a behind-the-scenes video via seat42f.com. Looks a lot like Continuum’s high-tech implant in  Vancouver-cop-from-the-future Kiera Cameron doesn’t it?

This is not the trailer that was shown at the CBS Upfront in New York. Hopefully that will be made available soon.

Josh Holloway Credit: Chris Helcermanas-Benge © 2013 CBS Broadcasting, Inc.