Video: The talented filmmakers — or should that be, remakers — at Ghostlight recently reshot the 1987 Paul Verhoeven masterpiece, RoboCop. But since they didn’t have a million dollar Hollywood budget, they had to build all of the film’s props and practical effects themselves, including this impressive ED-209 costume.
In the original film, ED-209 was realised using a miniature model that was animated by hand, frame-by-frame, and then composited into footage with actors afterwards. It’s a time consuming and expensive process to get it to look real, which is why these filmmakers simply built a lifesize ED-209 costume using everything from cheap cardboard to vacuum-formed plastic parts, with a puppeteer inside making it walk and move. You can see it in action in this clip from the final version of Ghostlight’s RoboCop remake:
Is this version as believable as the original ED-209 was? Not at all. But as far as costumes this would be a pretty fantastic getup for a Halloween party this year. And while the filmmaker’s behind-the-scenes video doesn’t give you a complete step-by-step guide on how to build your own ED-209 costume, it covers the basics, and you have about nine months until October 31 to figure the rest out.
[YouTube via The Awesomer]