I know who it is but I won’t tell.

Actually I’ve known the identity of the fifth and final Cylon for a couple of weeks now and it still seems like a surprising choice to me. Being a big fan of BSG myself I’m caught between a rock and a hard place when it comes to spoilers. On one hand I really want to know the inside scoop of what’s happening and yet, on the other hand, I want things to be a surprise.

Season 4 has been so hush-hush that they’ve done a great job of keeping the mystery alive for even those of us who work on the show. I only get glimpses of things to come. Pieces of the puzzle, so-to-speak.

Now that the mid-season finale has aired we know that they have found Earth, or at least what they believe is Earth. We know that the Earth is a barren wasteland. Beyond that I don’t have a clue as to what is happening. Even if I did I wouldn’t give it away anyways

What I do know is that apparently they’ve added an hour to the final episode. I half expected BSG to end with a movie-like finale. The online rumor mill is also strongly indicating that after the end of the television series at least one BSG film (most likely a TV movie) is in the works. I can’t confirm that info but it is exciting news, both as a big BSG fan and a performer on the show.

After taking some time off to work on a new ABC television series called “Samurai Girl” I’m looking forward to working again on BSG this coming Monday. It looks like they’ve got some very big action-filled episodes in the coming weeks as well as a few days on location in Kamloops. In fact, they are looking for local extras.

Let’s hope BSG continues to throw us curve balls to keep us speculators on our toes.

And I can’t wait to see the look on peoples faces when they find out who IS the final Cylon.

I’ve been lucky to work on some great shows in the past and I’ve had the good fortune to work on some really fun days on set. However, the real way to my heart is through my stomach

I just finished working on the last day of principal filming for The Day the Earth Stood Still. In honour of the occasion the caterers put together a feast I will not soon forget. They prepared lobster, duck, prime rib, fresh oysters along with a slew of sides and a dessert table that would make a fat kid cry with joy.

Unfortunately, I eat with my eyes as much as my stomach so I didn’t get around to the oysters in time and I only managed to snatch up the very last dish of lobster and duck. The prime rib was to die for

The production also set up the evenings entertainment with a string quartet, playing classical, and a large ice sculpture of the famous robot featured in the original film. It continues to be busy for me and I have a few more days later this week on The Day The Earth Stood Still for re-shoots and pick-up shots. I doubt we’ll eat this good for a while, I’ll just have to stick to regular catered food

What a contrast from the three and a half months of Writer’s Strike hell! Now I barely have time for sleep, I have been working all week on the feature film “The Day the Earth Stood Still (TDESS)”. We’ve been averaging 12-14 hour days.

I was supposed to go to an audition for the feature film “Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus” (the film stars the recently deceased Heath Ledger) today but could not make it due to my commitment to “TDESS”, but casting accepted an email with my headshot and a waist-up body shot in my absence. They were looking for monks for a particular scene. A friend called me right after the casting and congratulated me for getting the part even though I didn’t make the audition. Gotta love it!

Now I’m working at least two days on the film next week!

Now, as promised in a previous post, here’s some photos from a party a couple weeks ago. It was basically a bar industry party. We started out at Steamworks in Vancouver’s Gastown for dinner and drinks.

Then we were off for more drinks at the personal loft of The Blarneystone’s owner (who also owns the eatery chain Sammy J. Peppers). He lives right above The Blarneystone so it was very convenient to head downstairs for jugs of mix for the booze. One of the bonuses was a three litre bottle of vodka, kindly donated by a vendor. We also polished off a very nice bottle of Mexican aged tequila. Of course, a good indication of me being drunk is when my face is buried in womens’ bosoms

Sufficiently intoxicated, those of us still standing jumped in a fleet of taxis and headed down to the Granville Entertainment District in downtown Vancouver and partied away at The Roxy and The Republic nightclubs.

Ok, I know this is a weird photo of me on the toilet but it’s an awesome toilet seat from Japan! The seat is heated, so no more cold mornings and nights. It’s also got a built in bidet for the ladies and a butt rinser . . . that’s right, a butt rinser!!! It gently sprays warm water on your cinnamon ring! I asked for one to be brought back for me on his next trip to Japan.

The Roxy had a great live band that played some great live music, I videotaped a portion of their cover of Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ on a Prayer”. Please excuse our drunken karaoke at the end

I’ve worked a lot of long, cold, wet nights on the creation of this film and so far the trailers look spectacular. Although I wasn’t a fan of the first AVP movie, it looks like AVP-R is going back to the Predator’s action/gore roots.

The film comes to theatres on Christmas Day, which is (surprisingly enough), the day that generates the most movie ticket sales in the year. AVP-R is not the first film that comes to mind when spending time with my family, but I look forward to seeing it nonetheless.

We also get a peek at the Pred-Alien hybrid. Aliens take on some of the characteristics of their hosts, no doubt from the blending of DNA.

Despite being cold and wet most of the time, we had a lot of fun making this film. I played one of the National Guard soldiers that arrives in the town overrun by aliens. We pretty much die

With the Writer’s Strike in full force and with no apparent end in sight, it can be easy to have a bleak outlook on my future employment situation. With no more scripts “Bionic Woman” just wrapped up, “Battlestar Galactica” is finishing its last episode before it too wraps up due to script shortage and “Intelligence” apparently got bought by the Fox Network and they are moving the show to San Francisco. Those were the shows that were keeping me regularly employed.

Until the strike ends, most in my industry will have to rely on feature films and movie-of-the-weeks to get by financially.

I was on the set of a new show called “Ice Blues” for the last couple of days and there was a lot of talk about the state of the industry. Luckily, it looks like there will be a few big feature films that will , hopefully, keep us busy. The “Watchmen” movie continues to film here in Vancouver, “The Day the Earth Stood Still (remake)” has started camera tests and the next “X-Files” feature is slated to go to camera in early December. Of course there was the usual negativity amongst a few who like to piss on everyone’s parade but on the whole I believe we’ll do alright.

Situations like this teach us to not get too over-confident with your life and only hurts us hard if we over-extend ourselves, both financially and mentally.

On the way home from set today, I realized that I still worked 5 days this week. Yesterday, all I had to do was sit in a warmed up SUV as someone else drove it up a driveway. Today, I sat around set all day playing games, reading, chatting and eating . . . they never even got to my scene. In retrospect, my job is , for the most part, pretty easy and I have very little to complain about. I have a condo that I own (no small feat if you know the Vancouver real estate market) and my Stang is all paid off, courtesy of all my hard work. I’m still far from achieving the level of financial security I’d like and I haven’t taken a vacation since 2002, but things could be far worse.

Yes, life is peachy

Had to travel up to Britannia Beach yesterday, which is about a one hour drive north of Vancouver, to film a new Canadian series called Search and Rescue. Search and Rescue is a drama about the exploits of a Canadian Coast Guard crew.

In this episode I play a sailor who needs to be saved when the lifeboat cable breaks during a drill, dropping the lifeboat and its occupants into the sea, upside down from the side of the freighter.

The waters in October are chilly to say the least, but the costume department did their best to keep us warm with a hot tub on the dock (which we took advantage of often), dry towels, blankets, hot water bottles and, of course, hot soup! I was also fortunate to be wearing a half wet suit, so my core was relatively dry. Our day started with a call time of 6am and we wrapped up around 7pm. It sucked to be cold and wet all day, but we were fed well. At lunch I took advantage of the Brontosaurus ribs!

Just lucky I didn’t get sick, I chalk this one up to experience. All in all I probably won’t do it again

I’m pooped! Just got home after a long day of shooting Battlestar Galactica (BSG). My call time was 6:30am and I wrapped out at just after 10pm. I can’t tell you any details but we were finishing up a story arc within the show that involved all the performers to be covered in mineral oil and continually spritzed with water, to simulate sweating. So weird being so slick all day. I felt like wrestling someone

Was a bit of a frantic day for me as well since I was planning to pick up my Stang from the body shop. I called the shop early in the morning to inform them that I would not be able to come in today due to work. They surprised me by telling me that my car was the last one in the shop as they had sold their business and the new owners take possession tonight!!!

As soon as production called lunch I had to rush over to the body shop in the Homo Civic courtesy car they gave me. I’m sure I looked funny too as I was still dressed in my BSG uniform, I was dressed in my BDU’s and not my flight suit

Made it back to set with a few minutes to spare. Enough for me to wolf down some chow. My stomach hated me for eating so fast

Now I’m off to bed as I make my debut on the upcoming show “Bionic Woman”, my call time is 8am in White Rock, so I have to get up around 5:30am. I hope the show is good to work on. Been a busy couple of weeks and I have worked almost every day. I’m looking forward to some time off soon and maybe a mini-vacation to get out of the city.

I wrote briefly in a previous post that I am currently working on the movie adaptation of the popular First Person Shooter (FPS) video game, FarCry. It seems that not many people knew that the movie was being filmed, especially here in Vancouver. I play a soldier so I get to run around and shoot guns all day

More information on the cast and film crew can be found on the IMDB website. FarCry, due for a 2008 release, it being directed by Uwe Bolle, who also directed the recently Vancouver filmed “Postal”, “Bloodrayne 2″ and “In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale”. Seems like the German director is making a pretty good living working in Vancouver.

I could never play FPS games for too long as I get motion sickness pretty quickly. Although the last few games I played on my Xbox 360 I’ve been alright with, could also be my 50 inch widescreen TV that helps

I am lucky enough to get paired up with the super-awesome G36 assault rifle by H&K. The above photo shows it outfitted with a silencer. The photo below shows the basic variants of this effective assault rifle. Not only does it look menacing, but it is almost entirely composed of a very strong plastic polymer that makes it very light and effective in almost all climates but extreme cold. The buttstock is also retractable (it actually folds) to make it a sub-compact. Smooth firing and very easy to clear in the rare case it jams. The G36 is also made to be ambidextrous just for you southpaw soldiers out there

After finishing the Battlestar Pegasus movie titled “Razor”, Battlestar Galactica (BSG) is back in full storm shooting Seasons 4 and 5 (the final season) back-to-back until March 2008. It is scheduled for 12 episodes per season for a total of twenty four episodes, I’m gonna take a wild guess and assume that there will be a few special 2 hour episodes. It’s always fun to be able to work on a show that I’m also a great fan of, a unique pleasure to be able to be a small part of a huge legacy. My future kids are gonna watch the reruns

It was great to be back again and to see a lot of the regular cast and crew. It sounds funny but it was even good to be back in my green rubber spacesuit

It was also hot dog day!

Well, it appears the powers-that-be have found my little corner of the blogosphere. The producers have requested that I remove all the images from the mini-series Tin Man they are currently filming. I guess that’s what happens in an industry that is ruled by accountants and lawyers. Although I was never asked to sign a Non-Disclosure statement and all the photos were taken on personal time with the verbal consent of cast and crew involved, I have chosen to honor their request out of professional courtesy. Besides, who doesn’t already know about the Wizard of OZ anyways

I will continue to try my best and give you all a little taste of the strange and fun world I live in. Personally, I’d love to have my movie promoted by fans online, it creates a nice buzz. I’ll try not to lose sight of the people that support my continued success. I suppose I should be honored that my blog now ranks high enough for them to have found it

It should be an exciting year and I hope to be able to share some of it here. Battlestar Galactica is starting up shooting for Season 4 and I’m already booked on it next Tuesday, where I will reprise my role as a Viper/Raptor pilot.