Screen Accurate Hocus Pocus Book Sculpt (V1 Completed)

[ReplicaZero]

These are fantastic reference! I wish I had these when I was sculpting Book the first time! I think I have the scale all but solved, this confirms all the numbers I have gotten. These are such great quality, I will be adding them to my master reference for sure! Thanks for sharing these.

 

[threepwood32]

My people! I’ve found you!

The Hocus Pocus book has been my obsession since childhood. I’m new to this forum and I don’t know the lingo, but if by “run” you mean you would make more for others, I’m 1,000% buying.

For what it’s worth, here’s what I know about BooOOOook:

• I also believe there are 3 production versions (“eye open”, “eye closed” and animatronic)
• The “eye open” and “eye closed” versions are with Disney and displayed in various expos from time to time. The “eye closed” version was on display at Planet Hollywood circa 2009 in Orlando, where I got my one-and-only photo with it in person.
• The animatronic version is in the possession of William (Bill) Sandell, who was the Oscar-award-winning production designer on the film. He keeps a ton of his props and puts them on display from time to time. If you happen to be near him (I think he still lives in LA) he would probably show you.
• There are a bunch of videos of Bill's Hocus Pocus collection, including the book, on YouTube where he shows things up close (including here and here). But there are even MORE on his Facebook page. You have to friend him (he’ll probably accept; he accepted me) and then you can go through the pics & vids. There are tons. If you can’t get access, I could grab a couple.
• Fwiw I asked Bill if he’s ever interested in selling and he said no. Oh well, gotta shoot your shot.
• I've never seen any of the 3 prop books actually opened, so not sure which one had the fully designed pages. That would be the holy grail. What I wouldn't give to peek inside.

Ok, that's enough sounding like a freak for now. Guess it's the Halloween season that's got me extra into this. Huge props (pun intended) for taking this on. Can't wait to see more and hopefully one day buy a version from you!

 

[ReplicaZero]

The “eye open” and “eye closed” versions are with Disney and displayed in various expos from time to time.

So glad there are more like me out there. I have been doing SO much more research even after posting this and have more to share. So in this regard, I have learned that Disney "officially" has two in archive. One of which is right now in display in LA at the El Captain in Hollywood. The other is touring still with the Disney Archive for the Disney 100 exhibit.

where I got my one-and-only photo with it in person.

If you're near LA you can still see it at El Cap, I have a few photos from that trip. They even have it in a copy of its case (which is sort of frustrating since its so dusty and mucks up the photos)

There are a bunch of videos of Bill's Hocus Pocus collection, including the book, on YouTube where he shows things up close (including here

I have seen this video while I had been digging through for research and I have an interesting tidbit I've noticed about this book, even actually something I noticed from a few photos back posted in this thread. What I have noticed is in this first link you can see the clasp around the eye isn't that of the usual "U" shaped patterns, but is in fact a triangle. The triangle clasp was traded in for the second film. It also predominantly has two stitches that stitch over the top section of the book, where all the original stitches end at the edges. Lastly, the snake on the front is on upside down! For some reason, that has been the case for a few remaining Books I have seen from the second film, here are some examples from one I saw on display earlier this year (which quite possibly are Bills!)

In this photo, you can see the double stitch at the top, the reversed snake and the triangle on the clasp.

So the book Bill is in possession of, appears to be a hero prop from the *second* film, not the first. To be clear, since I have not met Bill, his clasp/snake/stitches are all following the pattern of the 2nd film, I don't want to discredit anything, for all I know he has repaired a Book from the first film.

and here).

I cant see the clasp in this one, but we can see the snake is facing the wrong direction, I think this is the same book

Can't wait to see more and hopefully one day buy a version from you!

I hope you do! I am currently still deep in work on my life size copy and will be starting up another thread for V2 of this Book. With the help of a couple amazing people here on the RPF, I have gotten a lot closer to bringing a very close film quality copy to the community! I will be posting about it very soon.

 

[threepwood32]

Mind. Blown. And the plot thickens!!

I assumed Bill had the animatronic copy from the first film because: 1) His Hocus Pocus credits are on the first film not the second film, and 2) He always teases opening the book but never shows you what's inside. See this example. He's rigged up some spooky lighting now and always cuts off the videos early.

THEN, on one of his FB posts in 2020 that featured a fake poster for a new movie, he says he hopes it was happening AND that they came to scan his book for the 2nd film.

So that makes me think he had a non-screen version from the first film kicking around (or maybe, like you said, he had one but touched it up somehow, perhaps for the scan?) Regardless, it seems his copy is not from the second movie but the first -- and those inconsistencies are what carried over into the second film. Seems to be a Disney pattern, immortalizing the imperfect versions of it - i.e., first on the Blu-ray cover, now in the second film lol

I've also seen him post these pictures of it going back to 2015, long before the 2nd film was twinkle in Disney's eye. Here are some of them.

Anyhow, you can guarantee I'll be glued to this thread and any future threads you start. Excited to see the progress!!

 

[threepwood32]

Minor update: there's a YouTube video from a month ago that confirms the middle book in your previous picture is on loan from Bill from the first film.

The placards for the books, from left to right, say the following:

Book 1: “Book concept prop created by ‘Hocus Pocus’ Creator/Producer, David Kirschner. This prop was displayed during the pitch meeting at The Walt Disney Studios in order to sell the film. On loan courtesy of David Kirschner”

Book 2: “Screen-used stunt Book from ‘Hocus Pocus.’ This version of Book was used when the actors would be carrying it in wide shots. On loan courtesy of ‘Hocus Pocus’ Production Designer William Sandell.”

Book 3: “Screen-used Book with restraint used in ‘Hocus Pocus 2’. On load courtesy of Alterian, Inc."

So there we go. It's a stunt book from the first film that was only used in wide shots and never seen up close, hence the slightly different stitching that isn't visible on screen.

 

[AJLoCascio]

Hey so as far as what is in Bill's book - I got to hold it and from what I remember it was hollow / empty. It was a resin-cast crew gift by my recollection.

Mind. Blown. And the plot thickens!!

I assumed Bill had the animatronic copy from the first film because: 1) His Hocus Pocus credits are on the first film not the second film, and 2) He always teases opening the book but never shows you what's inside. See this example. He's rigged up some spooky lighting now and always cuts off the videos early.

THEN, on one of his FB posts in 2020 that featured a fake poster for a new movie, he says he hopes it was happening AND that they came to scan his book for the 2nd film.

View attachment 1755765

So that makes me think he had a non-screen version from the first film kicking around (or maybe, like you said, he had one but touched it up somehow, perhaps for the scan?) Regardless, it seems his copy is not from the second movie but the first -- and those inconsistencies are what carried over into the second film. Seems to be a Disney pattern, immortalizing the imperfect versions of it - i.e., first on the Blu-ray cover, now in the second film lol

I've also seen him post these pictures of it going back to 2015, long before the 2nd film was twinkle in Disney's eye. Here are some of them.

View attachment 1755766

View attachment 1755767

View attachment 1755768

View attachment 1755769

View attachment 1755770

View attachment 1755771

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Anyhow, you can guarantee I'll be glued to this thread and any future threads you start. Excited to see the progress!!

 

[ReplicaZero]

For any interested parties I have started a project run here! This is for a the life size replica of Book, which differs in the 8x5 size of the V1 posted in this thread.

 

[threepwood32]

Hey so as far as what is in Bill's book - I got to hold it and from what I remember it was hollow / empty. It was a resin-cast crew gift by my recollection.

Yes hollow, but not a crew gift (unless by crew gift you mean the crew gave him one of the 3 or 4 screen-used copies?). In my previous post, I shared the video that confirms Bill's copy was a screen-used stunt Book that was used when the actors were carrying it in wide shots.

Speaking of crew gifts, though, are you aware of other gift versions that were made beyond those used on screen? If so, how many would there have been?

 

[Brendan]

Beautiful work! Great attention to detail. Love this prop and always enjoy seeing replicas. Here’s a pic I snapped at the Disney 100 exhibit.

 

[Too Much Garlic]

Cool work on the sculpt. An idea for printing it in resin. If the backs of the covers do not matter, try making it fatter and another idea could be to join the front and back, so they both print at the same time - with some added filler width between them, so they mold properly.

 

[ReplicaZero]

Cool work on the sculpt. An idea for printing it in resin. If the backs of the covers do not matter, try making it fatter and another idea could be to join the front and back, so they both print at the same time - with some added filler width between them, so they mold properly.

Thank you! I did end up having the sculpt printed in resin at various sizes, the covers are already quite thick and luckily so far, the molds have not been any issue.

 

[Rusty85]

While this project is ridiculously cool, it's a bummer there's no photos of the interior. The inside pages are what I'd love to see the most!

 

[ReplicaZero]

While this project is ridiculously cool, it's a bummer there's no photos of the interior. The inside pages are what I'd love to see the most!

Thanks, I know a lot of people are looking for a version that opens. I have a pretty good handle on what is inside so I have mostly kept it on the back burner because it is sort of already solved in my mind. In the new year we will see if I can achieve the version everyone here would like. In the meantime here are some photos of the life size resin version, which has captured all the detail in my sculpt.

 

[LuckyS7evine]

i love This book. Joint me for the run