Filming in Vancouver: Liam Neeson, Jeremy Piven, Sandra Oh, Freddie Highmore, and more

This week, there’s a revenge thriller and two TV pilots that are getting underway while a Canadian feature film with an international cast calls it a wrap.

There are some big names, as well as more cast details to reveal, so let’s get the show on the road, shall we?

We might as well get into the action with an action flick.

Production on the revenge-thriller Hardpowder kicks into high-gear today (March 20) in B.C. and continues to May 24.

It’s a remake of the 2014 Norwegian film In Order of Disappearance. When initially announced, much of the cast hadn’t been revealed, aside from Liam Neeson (Taken).

But now we’ve got more details of who’s on board.

Neeson stars as a snowplow driver at a Rocky Mountain ski resort town whose son is murdered by a local drug lord. When he seeks revenge, he sparks a turf war between a mafia boss, played by Tom Jackson (North of 60), and a vegan, Tesla-driving, Tom Ford–wearing gangster, played by Tom Bateman (Jekyll & Hyde).

Domenick Lombardozzi (Rosewood) will play a righthand man to a gang leader.

Other cast members will include Emmy Rossum (The Day After Tomorrow), Benjamin Hollingsworth (Code Black), and William Forsythe (Hawaii Five-0).

Elsewhere in the city, while four TV pilots launched into production last week, two more get going this week.

A TV pilot for Wisdom of the Crowd started production yesterday (March 19) and will continue until April 5.

Based on an Israeli show, the drama revolves around a tech developer, played by Jeremy Piven (Entourage) who creates a crowd-sourcing app called CrowdSolver to solve his daughter’s murder, thereby changing how crimes are solved in San Francisco.

Monica Potter (Parenthood) will play his ex-wife who is pursuing a career in politics.

Natalia Tena (Game of Thrones) will play the head of CrowdSolver, Blake Lee (Mixology) depict the head programmer, Jake Matthews (Bosch) will portray a tech genius, and Richard T. Jones (Criminal Minds) plays a traditional detective who joins the team.

Soon after, the pilot for The Good Doctor, based on a South Korean show, starts on Tuesday (March 21) and continues until April 6. It’s being produced by House creator David Shore and Hawaii Five-0 star Daniel Dae Kim.

This medical drama follows a surgeon with Savant syndrome, played by Freddie Highmore (who also shoots Bates Motel in Vancouver), who is recruited for a pediatric surgical unit.

Antonia Thomas (Lovesick) will play a talented doctor who develops a connection with the surgeon, Richard Schiff (The West Wing) plays the hospital president, Hill Harper (CSI: NY) portrays the hospital’s head of surgery, and Nicholas Gonzalez (who has also starred on the Vancouver-shot The Flash) will play a doctor in charge of the medical residents, who will be portrayed by Irene Keng (Grey’s Anatomy) and Chuku Modu (Game of Thrones).

Meanwhile, the Canadian feature film Meditation Parkby Vancouver filmmaker Mina Shum wraps up production on Thursday (March 23), having started on February 27.

The film follows an isolated Chinese Canadian woman in her 60s with limited English, played by Pei Pei Chang (Crouching Dragon, Hidden Tiger), whose discovery that her husband is having an affair changes her world.

The cast includes Jessica Paré (Mad Men), Sandra Oh (Grey’s Anatomy), Tzi Ma (The Man in the High Castle), Don McKellar (Sensitive Skin), and Zak Santiago (Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency).

Well, that’s a wrap for us for this week.

But next week, there are a few TV series concluding their production runs, not to mention other new developments to discuss, so be sure to check in with us again. In the meantime, good luck star spotting on the streets of Hollywood North.