Buddy Games 2 was being filmed at the Holy Trinity Cathedral in the city centre.
If you thought you spotted Josh Duhamel or Jensen Ackles in New Westminster this week, you were probably right.
The two stars were in town to film Duhamel’s Friends games 2, a sequel to the 2019 film, according to @YVRShoots on Twitter. The popular Twitter account, which follows filming activity around Metro Vancouver and the Lower Mainland, shared a series of tweets from @CaptCanuck66 showing filming action near and around Holy Trinity Cathedral in downtown New West.
According to IMDB, Friends games was about a group of friends who reunite to play The Buddy Games, “a wild variety of absurd physical and mental challenges.” Friends games 2 sees them return: “After the death of one of their own, Bombader and the boys steal the urn and go on a trip to honor his life to the place where the Friend Games began, but everything goes wrong when they find themselves in the middle of spring break”.
In addition to Duhamel (as Bobfather) and Ackles (known to New Westminster fans as one of the stars of the long-running fantasy horror show Supernatural, which was often shot locally), IMDB reports that top cast members also include Ginnifer Godwin, James Roday Rodriguez and Kevin Dillon.
Duhamel is also a director and producer.
Creative BC lists the production’s shooting dates as July 8th to August 5th.
Trevor Cave, the City of New Westminster’s filming coordinator, confirmed that a feature film was being filmed in the city this week and that filming was taking place at Holy Trinity Cathedral, near Fourth and Carnarvon streets. He could not elaborate as he is not allowed to reveal information about ongoing downloads, but noted that more information was available on Twitter.
The Record contacted Cave after an unrelated police incident nearby — a fight Wednesday afternoon at an apartment building in the 300 block of Agnes Street — left some residents wondering if the heavy police presence was, in fact, real or if also part of the film shoot.
As it turned out, the fight was a real police incident and the two stories were unrelated.
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