(Noob in need) The Forbidden Kingdom - Staff of The Monkey King

[GatorDave113]

Hey RPF,

I'm looking to start my first project and I'm having a tough time getting the ball rolling. The build I'm going to attempt is the staff of the monkey king from the 2008 movie The Forbidden Kingdom. I've started by trying to aquire as much reference material as possible and can't seem to find much. Aside from a couple partial shots and a ton of poor angled close ups, Google has returned very little as far as pictures. Is there perhaps a better resource for acquiring reference materials? What would you guys suggest I do?

 

[Jintosh]

Best I could find.

 

[GatorDave113]

These are great! I saw other versions of these frames on google but the resolution wasn't nearly worth looking at. Its a great start, thank you so much!

 

[Jintosh]

You're welcome. I wish you luck on your first project.

 

[GatorDave113]

Thanks for the wishes. I just went out and found the prop team for the movie. Do you think contacting them would be helpful? I could also see that being annoying if a random fan just cold calls about an old prop. Thoughts? What would be your next step if you were in my shoes?

 

[Jintosh]

I've known that to work.....but only on rare occasions. The prop team doesn't own the copyright. They may not be able to do anything without the copyright owners permission.

 

[GatorDave113]

That makes perfect sense. I hadn't thought about that. Do you think they would be allowed to tell me what happened to the hero prop?

 

[Jintosh]

If you ask in the right way, they might give you info. But pictures of the staff might not be something they can give out.

 

[Uridium]

Nice to see some love for the Monkey King. A fave character of mine, whatever the film or show. Even been to the Chinese Opera to see some traditional Monkey King shows.

One good thing about this prop is you don't need to be too accurate with its size...

 

[GatorDave113]

Nice to see some love for the Monkey King. A fave character of mine, whatever the film or show. Even been to the Chinese Opera to see some traditional Monkey King shows.

One good thing about this prop is you don't need to be too accurate with its size...

View attachment 704885View attachment 704886

Haha ya, I fell in love with forbidden kingdom when it came out, I know it's a rather loose interpretation of his story but I still liked it. Ive seen several other movies about him and theyre all pretty good. Thats awesome that you got to see the traditional performance, I bet that was amazing I'm super jealous. I was really surprised to see only like one other thread about this prop, and it had no replies. I figured it would have already been done but hey I have no problem being the first! and as far as the size I'm thinking I might make mine accurate to the traditional story and have it weigh 13,500 Jin. Jk

Thasks for the pics. I'm going to sit down sometime this week and watch the movie and snag more pieces. This project is definitely going to take some time. I feel like first step is definitely get as much source material as possible and then try to identify what it's made out of. Thoughts?

 

[Jintosh]

They way they throw it around, it could be wood. But it could also be hollow of something else. I think wood is your best bet.

 

[GatorDave113]

Alright, I just got off the phone with David Gersh and he has passed along my email to Bill Brzeski, the art director for the film. Fingers crossed.

 

[GatorDave113]

They way they throw it around, it could be wood. But it could also be hollow of something else. I think wood is your best bet.

I've been watching different clips of the movie and I think you're correct about both. There appears to be at least two different staffs used for the movie, one that flexes and one that doesn't. In the fight scenes they seem to use a somewhat flexible one, which I think is made of some form of PVC piping. Then they clearly switch to a more rigid one for the non combat scenes, I'm thinking wood as well. Not sure which would be considered the "Hero Prop" or if it would even matter.

 

[Jintosh]

Since it's too big to cast, I think the most durable material would be use a thick dowel of wood and carve it down to the right size and shape. If the staff is one piece, it'll last forever.

More work, but more desirable. Wood is just going to have a nice HEFT to it, compared to a hollow PVC.

 

[Aran Tanseli]

Hello all, I am a keen prop maker, but this is my first post on the RPF, and I just wanted to show you all my one. A few years ago, I made a life-size Monkey King staff replica from the Forbidden Kingdom, which I am sure will be very helpful. I started with a long, thick wooden dowel, and then using basically the same reference photos you have, used hot glue to make the patterns on the wooden dowel to make it resemble the fancy patterns on it. Then, once that was dry, I sprayed even coats of metallic gold spray paint on the entire staff and left it to dry, holding a half at a time to be able to do so. Once it was dry, I was done, and I was the monkey king! Hope that helps! Below are some images of mine.

 

[Jintosh]

Very nice.