Bon Voyage, Vancouver: STAR TREK BEYOND Wraps in Canada as Production Heads Next to Dubai

It’s been a busy three months, but after a dozen weeks of filming in and around Vancouver, production on STAR TREK BEYOND is wrapping in Canada.

Perhaps Simon Pegg’s official fan feed put it best:

Guest star Joe Taslim and family, who temporarily relocated to the city for his time on the shoot, flew home to Indonesia after weeks up north.

Now that the crew is voyaging overseas for the next phase of the BEYOND adventure, all eyes are on Dubai where director Justin Lin and company will be finishing the shoot. While there’s still no known victors from the big extras casting call last month, Digital Production Middle East is reporting that Lin and Pegg will be participating in a press conference in the city sometime next week.

DPME is also claiming that Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, John Cho, Anton Yelchin, and Idris Elba will be the main cast heading to the Middle East. While we’re not able to confirm that directly, Zoe Saldana seemed to indicate she may not be part of the international team heading to Dubai (caption abbreviated).

Update: Saldana did clarify on her Facebook page that she was referring only to her Vancouver BEYOND schedule, but still has made no mention of if she will be participating in the Dubai excursion.

* * *

Just because filming is wrapped, that doesn’t mean we’re done covering news from up north. Some local Vancouver set spotters have kept their eyes open for the last vestiges of BEYOND in town, including some official Starfleet cargo gear parked on the edge of a fenced in production area.

Photo by @vancitychris_ on Twitter

There’s also been a few last looks at the location shoot at the Pitt River Quarries outside of the city, which we last saw a few weeks ago.

Photos by Robin Key on Twitter

Photo by August Ustare on Twitter

* * *

While we first reported on Omaze contest winner Audri Davis’ trip to the set the other day, Omaze released a lengthy blog post detailing the fan winners’ adventure when visiting Vancouver earlier in September.

When it was time to go to set, the production coordinator for Star Trek Beyond, Jason, met us at the hotel and we hopped into a van. The drive was beautiful (I’m in love with Vancouver) and when we got there, jaws literally dropped.

The set was insane and all the equipment—cranes, green screens, tents, cameras—was overwhelmingly cool. I can’t say much more than this! But the winners were so excited, and Erika, Mike and I felt the same.

Our grand prize winner won a walk-on role, so we got to watch him shoot a scene! We were all situated in a special Omaze tent that had a bunch of chairs, headphones and two monitors, so we could sit and watch Adam’s claim to fame. He was clearly visible in the background of the scene, and when he wrapped, the entire cast and crew clapped for him. Yay, Adam!

Zoe Saldana and John Cho came over to talk and take pictures, and they were so nice and cool. John introduced himself as Chris Pine, which was hilarious, and Zoe even recognized our week 5 winner, Linda, from our Facebook post! She pointed at her and said, “I know you!” That was one of Linda’s favorite moments.

The head of the special effects department came over with two aliens he created, and we got to see them up close and touch their squishy faces. The head of the props department showed us a bunch of different, really cool weapons. The screenplay co-writer, Doug Jung, came over to talk and asked our winners what they as Star Trek fans would want to see in the new film. I think they gave him some good ideas.

At the end of the day, we told our winners that we were headed back to our hotel. We weren’t—we had one last surprise for them. We took them to another set, on a soundstage. I can’t say too much! But it was cool. And THEN… we got a surprise visit from ZACH QUINTO, CHRIS PINE AND KARL URBAN! Ahhh!!!

* * *

Finally, a bit of BEYOND housekeeping: the set we first reported being built back in late August in Vancouver’s outskirts has officially been taken off the Trek watchlist.

As our sources reported to us at the time, the local construction crew had informed those who inquired that the location build was being prepped for BEYOND, but this week word came down that this is actually for the upcoming War for the Planet of the Apes sequel.

Despite this miscommunication, we’re still proud to be leading the charge on STAR TREK BEYOND reporting, being the first to cover the location shoot at Squamish Rocks, the cast appearances at the Squamish forest (including Sofia Boutella’s “white ponytail” later seen in the ScreenCrush photo leaks), actor Deep Roy’s participation (and Alice Eve’s ambivalence), and some of the first photos of the “crashed starship” set and Pitt River Quaries location shoot.

Stay with us as we follow the production’s trip across the ocean over the next several weeks while STAR TREK BEYOND lives the international life in the UAE — after all, we were the first to talk to the Dubai Film Commission as well.