Riverworld’s Tahmoh Penikett – Serious Heroics

Tahmoh Penikett as Matt Ellman in Riverworld. Photo by James Dittiger and copyright of the Syfy Channel

He has battled the criminal element in Cold Squad, fallen in love with a humanoid robot in Battlestar Galactica, and doggedly pursued those in charge of a mysterious organization capable of creating the ideal human being for any situation in Dollhouse - such roles have allowed Tahmoh Penikett to exercise a wide range of his acting talents. In the Syfy Channel miniseries Riverworld, (Sunday, April 18th from 7-11:oo p.m. EST) the actor once again reached deep down into his bag of thespian tricks to bring the character of Matt Ellman to life. It is a role that he admits to having an instant connection with.

“This has only happened to me a few times, including with my character of Helo on Battlestar, which is when I first read the [audition] sides for the character of Matt in Riverworld I thought, ‘I understand this guy; I know where he’s coming from,’” says Penikett. “When the pieces fall together like that, you’ve got to trust your instincts, so I was really eager to get into the audition room.

“I met with [Riverworld director] Stuart Gillard and, honestly, I was a bit rusty as far as the audition process goes. You can be a professional actor who has been working all year long, which I’d been, but if it’s been a while since your last audition it can feel a little weird. So in this instance I had a couple of rough starts, but I subsequently worked on three scenes with Stuart and he seemed pleased with what I’d done.

Matt (Penikett) doesn't quite know what to make of his new surroundings. Photo by James Dittiger and copyright of the Syfy Channel

“A week later my manager phoned to tell me that we were in negotiations to get me the part. At that point I still hadn’t read the entire script. When I auditioned it was last minute; I got the sides and just had to go in and do it. So when I began reading the script and realized that Matt was the lead in the piece, it was kind of an extra bonus.”

Based on the series of popular award-winning novels by Philip Jose Farmer, Riverworld follows the adventures of daredevil war correspondent Matt Ellman (Penikett). When he and his fiancée Jessie (Laura Vandervoort) meet an untimely demise, they are reborn on a strange world where billions of other deceased humans have been reborn as well. Ironically, it is Matt’s almost obsessive desire to do some good in the world that has landed him and Jessie in this predicament.

“Matt is a young man who has been tempted and put himself in a number of very dangerous situations,” explains Penikett. “There’s a part of him that gets off on that, and there’s also a bit of a sadistic side of him that likes punishing himself. My character has a lot of guilt because of past experiences that’s he’s been through, and one, in particular, that we touch upon in our story. It haunts Matt every day and is part of the reason he constantly takes on jobs as a war correspondent that most other people would turn down. Matt is forever putting himself and his cameraman in danger, but not out of selfishness. I think he feels in some ways that this is his attempt at redemption. Either that or he’s literally just punishing himself for mistakes he believes he’s made in the past.

Matt (Penikett) shares his thoughts with Tomoe (Jeananne Goossen). Photo by James Dittiger and copyright of the Syfy Channel

“My character is excellent at what he does, but he’s also a little bit careless. Matt is an incredibly ambitious man when he starts out as a war correspondent and he’s a brave man, too. Well-educated and raised by loving parents, he goes into this job with a great deal of drive and determination to make a difference because he believes he can. And then this one event takes place that changes him. It’s something that he cannot forgive himself for and he continues to put himself in harm’s way, probably even more so than he did in the past, in an effort to redeem himself.

“I think it’s clear right off the bat about what kind of bond Matt has with his best friend Simon [Arnold Pinnock]. They’ve been through so much together and literally saved each other’s lives multiple times. Through their relationship, you get a sense of what an incredibly loyal guy Matt is. He doesn’t have a lot of people left in his life, and when the story opens, you find that Matt and Simon have just been through yet another hairy situation. And my back story on this incident is that once again Matt sees how fragile life is. He realizes how quickly it can be taken away from you and how important it is to move on. That’s when my character decides to marry this incredible woman who he’s fallen in love with and only known for two months.”

Sadly, Matt and Jessie are victims of a cruel twist of fate, which is how they end up on Riverworld. One of the early scenes in the miniseries is of Matt being reborn. This was among those filmed on the first day of the production and one that sticks out in Penikett’s mind for several reasons.

Our hero emerges from the banks of the mysterious river. Photo by James Dittiger and copyright of the Syfy Channel

“My number one memory of that day is the location that we shot at, Britannia Beach, which is just outside of Squamish in British Columbia,” he says. “This is God’s country and the geography is incredible in that you can have whatever type of look you want. Drive four hours away and you’ve got desert-like conditions, while in and around Vancouver you have gorgeous rainforests, beautiful oceans and majestic mountains, and this location was beautiful. We were blessed with terrific weather, too, and we had an excellent DOP [director of photography, Thomas Burstyn] as well, so all the shots are outstanding.

“The very first thing we filmed on-location is the scene where my character wakes up in Riverworld and literally comes out of the water. So within an hour-and-a-half of getting a little haircut and having make-up put on, they threw me in the ocean. Man, was it ever cold. I froze my ass off for a couple of hours doing that,” says the actor with a chuckle. “It was early April and not exactly warm for that time of year up in B.C., but, again, it was a gorgeous day.

“I also had one of my first scenes that day with Jeananne Goossen [Tomoe], and funnily enough it’s one of the last scenes in the miniseries. It was an interesting test as actors to film what essentially was an integral beginning scene, and then jump right into one of the end scenes. It was good, though, and everything felt right. I really liked the crew straightaway; everyone seemed to be on point and Stuart and I had already established a little bit of a relationship beforehand just discussing the Matt character and his back story. I immediately had a good feeling about him and he proved to me on day one that he was going to be an excellent director. Stuart was an actor, and I often find that some of the best directors are actors, were actors or at least tried it. They know how to talk to actors and understand us. Their dedication to do that is just incredible to me, and I can’t tell you how much it means to an actor, too.

Who is this mysterious blue individual and what is he or she saying to Matt (Tahmoh Penikett)? Photo by James Dittiger and copyright of the Syfy Channel

“Actors need to be communicated to. We’re here to serve the story. We make strong choices and as you become more experienced and confident in your craft, you’re going to bring a lot to the table. But a good director can always bring out the best in you, and Stuart spoke my language. He was completely open to any suggestions I had to try to better the script or anything I could offer up that might allow us to touch on a different angle or aspect of a scene. For my first leading role, to have that kind of relationship with a director who is so open and so intelligent was, for me, a real confidence builder as well as inspiring and I learned a great deal from Stuart.”

Although Matt has known Jessie for only a relatively short period of time, there is no doubt in his heart that this is the woman for him. “If you’ve done any traveling in your life and spent a week with someone else, that’s like knowing that person back home for four or five months,” says Penikett. “Oftentimes when you’re travelling you’re not bothered or distracted by responsibilities. You’re completely present and focused on the individual you’re with, and in my character’s back story that was the case with Matt and Jessie.

“He saw her helping an old lady in the street and couldn’t resist introducing himself to her because it truly was love at first sight. Matt had never experienced that before. This is someone who has had a lot of loss in his life. In the back story I came up with for Matt, he lost his older brother as well as his parents. The only family member he has left is his sister, so in a lot of ways he’s very guarded and closed off to true love. So when he sees this girl he just can’t believe it. Jessie is the most beautiful girl Matt has ever laid eyes on, and then the two of them share eight passionate weeks together and they just click. They’re soul mates, and Jessi is one of the few people who can break through all the pain that Matt carries with him and help him deal with it. That’s why when he finished his last assignment with Simon, he realizes, ‘I have to go for this. You only get this chance once in your life, and this is the woman I want to be with.’”

Jessie (Laura Vandervoort) and Matt, destined to be together forever...or are they? Photo by James Dittiger and copyright of the Syfy Channel

They may have died together, but when Matt and Jessie get to Riverworld they are separated. Penikett’s character sets out to find her with the help of a few others, including a 12th century Samurai warrior named Tomoe.

“There’s an immediate connection and attraction between Matt and Tomoe,” notes the actor. “Yes, Matt is madly in love with Jessie and his first and foremost goal is to find her, but he and Tomoe are thrust into this situation and they form a bond with and love for each other. They go to amazing lengths for one another, and it’s a neat parallel to Matt’s and Jessie’s relationship in that as that story goes on, the respect and friendship that Matt and Tomoe share continues to grow. So there’s a lot of potential there with them too, you know? I also think that it’s confusing to both of them, but Tomoe’s loyalty and bravery is obvious.”

Matt and friends travel up the mysterious river in search of Jessie on a riverboat, courtesy of Samuel “Mark Twain” Clemens (Mark Deklin). “I was very excited about the paddlewheeler because I’m from the Yukon and they’re historical up there,” says Penikett. “Most of them were burnt down, but the S.S. Klondike is probably the most famous one that’s still in the City of Whitehorse. I grew up with that being an historcial site. These boats were from the Gold Rush days when everyone was coming up from Skagway and trying to head up to Dawson City to make their fortune.

Matt (Penikett), Simon (Arnold Pinnock), Sam Clemens (Mark Deklin) and Youseff (Kwesi Ameyaw). Photo by James Dittiger and copyright of the Syfy Channel

“So I couldn’t believe it when I found out we would be shooting on an actual paddlewheeler. We did a ton of scenes in and out of it, and it’s very much another character in the miniseries. Within days of us being on it, Mark Deklin was saying, ‘This boat is an integral and important character in the story,’ and we all adamantly agreed Some of the most important scenes in this four-hour miniseries play out on that boat.”

Our heroes eventually cross paths with British explorer/adventurer Sir Richard Burton (Peter Wingfield), who claims he can lead them to Jessie. Matt, however, is less-than pleased when the arrogant and duplicitous Brit admits that he has developed an affection for her, and vice versa.

“That really throws my character off,” says Penikett. “The Powers That Be in Riverworld let Matt know that he and Burton have a connection that needs to be dealt with, and possibly only one of them will survive. It’s a strange experience for Matt, but all the signs keep on showing him that there’s this truth out there and he doesn’t have a choice in the matter. So he ponders carefully and moves forward as he tries to deal with it.You’ve got to understand that Matt and everyone else in this place want to know, ‘Is this a nightmare? Are we in heaven, or hell? What are the rules? Are we here to atone for the mistakes we’ve made?’ There’s a total sense of loss and confusion there, which really messes with Matt and most of the relationships he has in Riverworld.”

Could this be it for Matt (Penikett)? Photo by James Dittiger and copyright of the Syfy Channel

Matt and Burton eventually come to blows, literally, towards the end of the miniseries, and Penikett enjoyed the physical challenges associated with putting together as well as executing this fight. “Our head stunt coordinator, Marshall Virtue, was excellent,” he praises. “His family is a legendary stunt family from here in B.C. They’ve worked on a lot of projects and Stuart has worked with Marshall’s father Danny for 25 years.

“Marshall is a smart kid and for this project he brought in one of the best martial arts fight coordinators in the business, Larry Lamb, and to get to work with someone of his caliber is just exceptional. I’m a martial artist myself, and Larry and I connected right away. Having done a great deal of this [type of fighting], too, I tend to pick up the fight choreography fairly quickly. With Riverworld, we were constantly changing things, and that’s just the nature of filming.

“Oftentimes you’ll choreograph an incredible fight, but due to time and delays in shooting, parts of it will usually be cut out. When we went to shoot our big fight, we actually ended up cutting out a couple of little chunks. No matter what, though, it’s really important to always be safe with the fighting. If you take a wrong swing or use the wrong hand, there’s a chance that someone is going to get hurt. I have to give a shout out to our stunt guys because they were amazing. On the day of filming there was a point where I jumped off the stairs and straight-kicked one of them. I’ve got a big foot and I didn’t actually hit him, but because I was above him, I did hit his stomach pad. He went flying off the stairs, but he took it like a champ.

Matt (Penikett) and Tomoe (Jeananne Goossen), a dynamic fighting duo. Photo by James Dittiger and copyright of the Syfy Channel

“I also had this one final scene between Matt and Burton, and once again I was fighting with a stuntman. We rehearsed it numerous times and I was supposed to throw a roundhouse kick at him. Well, my pants were so loose that they kept slipping down, which, of course, is going to impede how high you can kick. Right before the roundhouse kick, I did a bunch of other kicks. Well, my pants came down, but I didn’t realize it and I went for the roundhouse kick, which was probably a good two inches lower than it should have been. Luckily, the stunt guy ducked right under it.

“Fortunately, we all walked away pretty much unscathed. I love that sort of stuff, though, and the more I do it, the better I’m getting at the whole fight choreography thing.”

Who will live, who will die? Who will win Jessie’s heart, Matt or Burton? You will have to tune in to Riverworld to find out, and Penikett is confident that audiences will enjoy the ride. “Every actor in this miniseries really invested himself or herself in their character and I think the bar was set high right from the start,” enthuses the actor. “I worked my ass off and so did the rest of the cast as well as the crew. Everyone was very focused, ambitious and present. Ultimately, we did everything we could to make the best story possible.”

Steve Eramo

As noted above, all photos by James Dittiger and copyright of the Syfy Channel, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!

Sanctuary’s Martin Wood – Season Of Change

Martin Wood (front left) on the Sanctuary set. Photo by Jeff Weddell and copyright of Sanctuary 2 Productions

Having honed his craft directing such Sci-Fi TV shows as Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, Andromeda, Jeremiah and Earth: Final Conflict along with helping produce both Stargate series, Martin Wood has brought all those years of experience to his role as an executive producer as well as writer and director on Sanctuary. Debuting last fall on The Syfy Channel, Sanctuary began on the Internet as the story of Dr. Helen Magnus, who operates a worldwide network of facilities, or Sanctuaries, that were established to provide shelter for, and in some cases imprison, creatures called Abnormals. The series returned this past October for its second season, and while its overall premise remains the same this year, it has further grown and developed, as Wood explains. 

“When we came back this year and talked about where we wanted to go with the second season, we all knew that we now had an idea of what this show could be,” recalls the director. “The direction that Damian Kindler [series creator/executive producer], Amanda Tapping [who stars as Dr. Helen Magnus and also serves as an executive producer] and I wanted to go in was to make Sanctuary bigger and better. And everyone here took that to heart and ran with it, which I think is great. 

“We went through a whole range of different things as far as how we were going to start the season and what we were going to do. That included looking at a bunch of audience reactions to season one, because we wanted to react to what the viewers felt. As a result, we decided, ‘We have to shake things up a little bit.’ You know my philosophy on major characters; I always feel that they have to be expendable because the only thing that keeps a TV show alive is if its characters are in real jeopardy. If not, every time one of them gets into a dire situation, you know they’re going to come out OK on the other end. 

Emilie Ullerup (as Ashley Magnus) and Martin Wood. Photo by Jeff Weddell and copyright of Sanctuary 2 Productions

“We decided to take the Ashley [Emilie Ullerup] character and ‘Sci-Fi’ kill her, meaning she could come back in other episodes and different incarnations. After all, we have a 158-year-old Magnus, so her daughter could possibly come back. There are a number of things we could have done in terms of introducing jeopardy into our story; this is the way we wanted to go and Emilie embraced it with both hands. She was outstanding,” praises Wood. “In the first two episodes, she utters one word, ‘Mom.’ That’s it. The rest of her acting is done with just her face, which is tough, but Emile did it beautifully. I told her at the end of shooting the second episode [End of Nights, Part 2] that it was some of the hardest acting she had ever done on the show and she did a terrific job.” 

At the end of Sanctuary‘s first season, Dr. Magnus’ chief rival, the Cabal, manages to turn Ashley against her mother and everything Magnus stands for. In the two-part second season opener, End of Nights, Ashley and five other individuals are transformed into super Abnomals and used in a campaign to bring down the entire Sanctuary network. Wood was given the monumental task of directing this story, which, among other things, has a fast-moving action sequence featuring new series regular Agam Darshi who plays con artist Kate Freelander. 

“I thought, ‘If we’re going to open things up, let’s really open it up,’” says Wood. “I said to Damian, ‘We need to have a car chase,’ so in the script he wrote the words Magnus chases Kate. Then we decided that Henry [Ryan Robbins] needed to be there, too. OK, Magnus and Henry chase Kate, but in two separate cars, and Magnus had to drive something hot. So I asked Damian if we could use his BMW and he said, ‘Sure.’ 

Martin Wood (back to camera) with Amanda Tapping (Helen Magnus) and Robin Dunne (Will Zimmerman). Photo by Jeff Weddell and copyright of Sanctuary 2 Productions

“The idea was that if it was a sunny day we could have the top down on the car and Magnus with her hair blowing in the wind and driving this convertible. Then we found a place where we could actually shoot the scene, and without Damian knowing it, I set up this type of camera called the Ultimate Arm, which is a Mercedes SUV with a giant crane hanging off the side of it. You can stuff six people into this thing, and as the director I get to sit in the back sideways, because there’s a little hatchback in the rear. We travel twice as fast as the cars in the scene in order to beat them and get in front of and beside them. By doing it this way, we could have Amanda driving Damian’s car, Ryan Robbins driving a car, and Agam Darshi driving a car as well. 

“So we were able to drive beside them like that, but when we got into the hot and heavy stuff, Amanda said to me, ‘I’m going to keep driving.’ She’s used to driving a sports car anyway, so that’s what we did. We were shooting for about six hours and halfway through the day, Damian came out to see how things were going. The first words out of his mouth were, ‘My car!’ as he watched Amanda winding around a corner. And he had just put on his good tires, too,” chuckles the director. “Damian had no idea it was going to be a minute-and-a-half chase sequence, so that was fun to do.” 

Although it has been known since season one that Magnus’ Sanctuary organization is a global one, it was felt in year two that this fact needed to be visually reinforced to the audience. Wood and his fellow executive producers also wanted to give Abnormals a greater onscreen presence this time around. “One of the things we decided to do in season two was put more Abnormals into everything we did,” says Wood. “So, for example, in the season opener there was the fight with the big giant Abnormal. We had a huge stunt guy dressed in a green suit. He was only half the size of the Abnormal you see on the screen, but we still had more stunt guys jumping on top of him during that scene. It was pretty cool. 

Martin Wood running through an action sequence with Robin Dunne. Photo by Jeff Weddell and copyright of Sanctuary 2 Productions

“We also showed our Sanctuaries in London and Tokyo. We had talked about them before, but now we were actually in them. There’s that great scene with the nine monitors and Magnus talking to nine different Sanctuary heads, including Medusa in Japan, who you see after the Tokyo Sanctuary is attacked. There’s also the actual attack, where Ashley and two other super Abnormals drop through the skylight. I had talked with Lee Wilson [visual effects supervisor] about doing that practically. We went through all the machinations of what the set would look like and all that, and he said to me, ‘You know what, just let me do it [using VFX].’ Lee then took it and just ran away with it, and it was so amazing. It really was a remarkable visual effect for something done completely through a computer, and the entire process took about two weeks, too. 

“That’s something else that happens with our show. We end up getting so little time to do feature-film-like effects. You hear some people saying, ‘But it doesn’t look like it does in the movies,’ but it sometimes takes up to a year to do movie VFX. That’s why these sorts of things aren’t done very often on TV, because of the time involved. Sometimes I’ll be sitting with our visual effects guys, who will show me things on the computer, and my only reaction is, ‘Oh, my God, that’s so cool. OH, MY GOD, THAT’S SO COOL!’ And I’ll keep amplifying that response until everyone in the office is hearing me. They never hear me say, ‘Oh, that doesn’t look that great.’ We’re fortunate to have some really good [VFX] artists working on Sanctuary. I love the fact that in our first two episodes alone this year we have half the number of visual effects as we had in all of season one. That’s one of the ways we ramped up the show this year.” 

In End of Nights, Wood enjoyed the opportunity to direct some complex fight sequences, including one where John Druitt (Christopher Heyerdahl) battles Ashley and two other super Abnormals. “Damian said, ‘I’d like to do a sword fight,’ and I said, ‘OK.’ So we set it up as a serious sword fight with Chris using two swords, and that came from our fight coordinator, Rob Hayter, and our stunt coordinator, Marshall Virtue,” notes the director. “It was one of those things where you get into the shooting of it and think, ‘This is either going to be the coolest fight we’ve ever done, or the most unbelievable one.’ 

Setting the stage for the big fight sequence. Photo by Jeff Weddell and copyright of Sanctuary 2 Productions

Chris Heyerdahl (John Druitt, dressed in black, back to camera) in "action-mode" with Martin Wood right beside him. Photo by Jeff Weddell and copyright of Sanctuary 2 Productions

Martin Wood (right) checking out the shot. Photo by Jeff Weddell and copyright of Sanctuary 2 Productions.

“Chris Heyerdahl came in and started rehearsing, and on the day leading up to the sword fight, whenever he had a break, he’d walk over to the side of the set, grab the practice swords and fight. He had the [stunt] guys there the whole time so he could practice, so when the time came to shoot the fight, it was mostly Chris doing it. Mike [Desabrais, stunt player] and the two stunt doubles were there for a couple of shots for when it got really violent, but otherwise all the activity you see on the screen is Chris. When we cut it together and I watched the scene for the first time I was like, ‘This is definitely worth it.’ It was very convincing and unlike any fight I’d ever shot before.” 

In the final moments of End of Nights, Ashley regains control of herself from the Cabal just long enough to save her mother’s life, but in order to do so, she must sacrifice herself. Not surprisingly, it was an incredibly moving moment for all involved. “Damian, Amanda and I massaged that scene in so many ways,” says Wood. “We sat down and looked at all the different scenarios for how Magnus could come across Ashley and how she couldn’t shoot her. Amanda then came up with the sequence of events, and then I said, ‘Well, Magnus has to put her gun down at some point.’ And that’s how that whole scene came together – the three of us sitting in Damian’s office and deciding how we wanted to play it out. 

“Then during the actual shooting of the scene, Amanda collapsed on the floor like she was supposed to, and I was standing behind the cameraman, who I kept pulling further and further back. It was so hard to watch Amanda cry like that. She was so distraught [in the scene] and the entire crew was waiting for me to yell, ‘Cut!’ Amanda was also looking at me as if to say, ‘Why aren’t you saying, ‘Cut!’ But I just kept pulling the cameraman back and having him continue to shoot way longer than is comfortable in a situation like that. I really felt, though, that that’s what was needed at the end of this episode where Magnus is saying goodbye to her daughter under the most heinous of situations. It was very emotional and we don’t shy away from that on our show. We allow that to happen as opposed to keeping it light.” 

Green screen work on the Sanctuary set. Photo by Jeff Weddell and copyright of Sanctuary 2 Productions

Following Sanctuary‘s season opener, Wood directed episode four, Hero, in which a very ordinary man is unexpectedly thrust into a very extraordinary, and life-threatening, predicament. “This story shows us that, yes, human beings can ‘fly,’” says Wood. “It’s an amusing romp as well as a standalone story and a chance for our characters to take a bit of a breather from all that’s been happening to them. 

“Damian wrote a Stargate SG-1 episode called The Other Guys, and it was the first story of his that I directed. It was a great deal of fun, so he did the same kind of thing with Hero.  It’s like Sanctuary‘s The Other Guys. Chris Gauthier from Eureka guest-stars in it, and his character [of Walter, "The Adjuster"] is one that we would like to bring back in the third season. 

On-location with Martin Wood. Photo by Jeff Weddell and copyright of Sanctuary 2 Productions

“We’ve done a lot more 3-D creatures as well in season two, and Hero has one in it called a Coleanthropus, and it looks great. The first time you get to see it in all its glory is in-between two garbage bins. Then it stands up and you’re like, ‘Yikes!’ There’s a huge fight with it during the climax of this episode that’s neat.” 

The director had been slated to shoot the episode Pavor Nocturnus, but the schedule subsequently changed and Brenton Spencer, another name very familiar to Stargate and Sanctuary fans, directed it instead. “When we finished the episode, we looked at it and said, ‘It doesn’t quite end the way we wanted it to,’” says Wood. “So we rewrote the final two scenes to give the story a bit more of a twist and I then shot those. Brenton did a fantastic job of directing what is a really, really dark story that includes a scene where Magnus gets physically abused. 

“My next episode was number eight, Next Tuesday, which is this year’s Requiem [referring to a season one story], and it’s Amanda Tapping and Robin Dunne [Dr. Will Zimmerman] in the borehole of an oil rig in a crashed helicopter. They spent five days with me in a pool of water that was 72 feet across and 20 feet deep. Everything was done with Amanda and Robin, no stunt people, and it was quite incredible. I wanted to see one morning how long I could tread water without holding on to anything – I went four-and-a-half hours directing from a treading water position. And Amanda and Robin were in and out of the helicopter, in the water, underwater, you name it. It was a very hard shoot for them, but it turned out to be a beautiful episode.” 

Martin Wood directing Amanda Tapping and Robin Dunne in "Next Tuesday." Photo by Jeff Weddell and copyright of Sanctuary 2 Productions

Treading water for four-and-a-half hours! Photo by Jeff Weddell and copyright of Sanctuary 2 Productions

Something nasty is lurking behind the door...Photo by Jeff Weddell and copyright of Sanctuary 2 Productions

Behind-the-scenes shot from "Next Tuesday." Photo by Jeff Weddell and copyright of Sanctuary 2 Productions

Wood’s final directing credit for season two of Sanctuary is the show’s two-part season finale, Kali, and it might surprise some viewers to learn that the episode has a Bollywood dance sequence in the second half that feature Robin Dunne. “It’s very much part of the story and it comes off perfectly,” says Wood. “I think episode 13 is probably the best show we’ve shot so far. And we actually did some filming in Japan for episode 12 as well. We were invited over there for a quick press conference and were going to be in Tokyo for a little over 72 hours. I looked at Damian and said, ‘Let’s shoot something while we’re there,’ and he said, ‘Sure.’ 

Singer, songwriter, artist and industrial designer Tatsuya Ishii, Robin Dunne and Amanda Tapping shooting in Tokyo. Photo courtesy of and copyright of Martin Wood

On-location in Tokyo with Robin Dunne and Damian Kindler - who have been up for 74 hours. Photo courtesy of and copyright of Martin Wood

“We’d been flying for 11 hours and after arriving in Tokyo we went on a little tour of the city and thought, ‘OK, we can shoot something here, and we can shoot something there.’ We even arranged to use a celebrity from there, Tatsuya Ishii; he’s a pop star as well as a Renaissance man, a beautiful sculptor and just a really cool guy. We wanted him to play the head of the Tokyo Sanctuary. 

Martin Wood, the director, as the cameraman ("I was the only one who knew how to use the RED camera"). Photo courtesy of and copyright of Martin Wood

Damian Kindler, Martin Wood, Robin Dunne and Amanda Tapping in the pouring rain! Photo courtesy of and copyright of Martin Wood

Amanda Tapping and Robin Dunne shooting in Shabuya. Photo courtesy of and copyright of Martin Wood

“Damian wrote two scenes, and when we got to the filming location there was a soundman along with a camerman, but the cameraman didn’t know how to operate the RED camera [ultra high-definition camera] that we use. So it kind of fell to me to say, ‘OK, I’ll do the shooting.’ Damian was sort of wrangling things from a production assistant standpoint, so we filmed the scenes and just had a ball.” 

More shooting in Shabuya with Martin Wood. Photo courtesy of and copyright of Martin Wood

Final touches! Photo courtesy of and copyright of Martin Wood

With a second season of Sanctuary under their respective belts, Wood and the rest of the show’s cast and crew cannot wait to start work on number three. “This year has been just spectacular,” enthuses the director. “Amanda Tapping went further [as an actress] than I’ve ever seen her go in anything before. Robin Dunne, Ryan Robbins, Chris Heyerdahl, Agam Darshi, Robert Lawrenson, who plays a new character, Declan Macrae, and Jonathon Young, who came back a couple of times as Nikola Tesla, all really pushed themselves creatively as well and I loved that. 

Sanctuary DOP (director of photography) Gord Verheul and Martin Wood. Photo by Jeff Weddell and copyright of Sanctuary 2 Productions

“As for season three, we’ve talked a lot about that already and are very much looking forward to it. In the meantime, we couldn’t be more pleased with the show, and the fans seem to be happy with it, too, so it’s all good.” 

Cut and print! Photo by Jeff Weddell and copyright of Sanctuary 2 Productions

 Steve Eramo 

As noted above, all Sanctuary photos by Jeff Weddell and copyright of Sanctuary 2 Productions, and all on-location Tokyo photos courtesy of and copyright of Martin Wood, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of ANY kind. Thanks!