The Box

911dropship

New Member
I'm trying to replicate the key prop from the movie "The Box"
The woodworking isn't a problem, but I'm having difficulty locating the big machined button device. It's most likely a custom cnc part. Has anyone seen something that is close or could be modified to resemble the part?

Thanks!

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I wondered who would be first to make one of these! Should be a lovely prop.

Are you sure it's a custom piece? Have you looked at industrial/exterior mushroom-head buttons? A quick Google comes back with a few relatively similar things, so it may be worth hunting in more depth?
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I've personally seen many variations of the big red button at my local electronics store: www.acksupply.com - I can't tell from the picture you included, but the solid red button about 1.5-2" in diameter I know I've seen at ACK.

Jim
 
The actual red button has more of a mushroom shape as I recall. The hard part is going to be finding the housing that the red part goes into. It's a large aluminum cylindrical piece with a series of hex bolts on the outer flange. I wish I could find some more pics of the actual prop.

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A visit to the movie's official site has some different views - managed to take a screenshot of the opening video that shows a bird's eye view - hope this helps. It does show the placement of the screws.

Jim
 
You're going to love this - I kept playing around on the site and found this downloadle PDF that has schematics! Even has side views of the button and the metal throat the button sits on. I don't know if I could find the exact combination of clicks on all the secret buttons and such on the website so I hope this works. If not, PM me and I'll email you the pdf I downloaded.



http://thebox-movie.warnerbros.com/media/content/hrem.pdf

Jim
 
You're going to love this - I kept playing around on the site and found this downloadle PDF that has schematics! Even has side views of the button and the metal throat the button sits on. I don't know if I could find the exact combination of clicks on all the secret buttons and such on the website so I hope this works. If not, PM me and I'll email you the pdf I downloaded.

http://thebox-movie.warnerbros.com/media/content/hrem.pdf

Jim

That does indeed work and it's an awesome PDF! Will make a very cool paper prop. :)

A lot of movie websites seem to be running sweepstakes for The Box, where the grand prize is a replica of the box which is said to have a retail value of $200. So there are obviously quite a few exact replicas (from the studio) out there. And does having a retail value mean that they will be sold commercially eventually?

Runners up can win this:

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It would indeed be cool to have a full size replica though.
 
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You're going to love this - I kept playing around on the site and found this downloadle PDF that has schematics! Even has side views of the button and the metal throat the button sits on. I don't know if I could find the exact combination of clicks on all the secret buttons and such on the website so I hope this works. If not, PM me and I'll email you the pdf I downloaded.



http://thebox-movie.warnerbros.com/media/content/hrem.pdf

Jim

Thats AWESOME Jim! Thank you VERY much!(y)thumbsup:thumbsup
 
I just ran into someone from WB walking through the office carrying this thing... Naturally, I pounced. :cool Turns out it's a promotional one that the studio made as a show-off piece. They made a few of them (at a cost of about $300 each I was told), and appears to be a fairly accurate duplicate of the original(s) (although I've never seen the original in person, so can't say that for sure). I'm not sure if WB is holding on to all of these, or if they might be given/sold to people at some point, but it's something to watch out for. (Also something to be careful of if someone is ever selling a 'screen used' one...)

The bottom of the box had the name of the movie and a copyright line or two printed on it, so it's easy to spot as a replica (although I suppose that could be removed).

Unfortunately I wasn't able to takes pics/measurements... :rolleyes

[Edit] Reading back through the thread I see that someone mentioned the studio is giving away replicas in various contests... That must be what this was. It did look pretty good, possibly built by the same people using the same techniques as the original...

Looking at the sweepstakes rules, it appears there was one grand-prize winner, and a couple of 2nd-place winners. All the websites seemed to advertising the same contest (at least, I think that's what they were doing...), so there might just be one box so far that the studio gave away (but they did make at least a couple of them).
 
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There appears to be a dozen or so that were screen used. The give-away was for just one unit. All of the contests were linked together for the now over promotional sweepstakes. They are supposed to notify the winner this month.

It would be cool if someone from this board gets it!:thumbsup
 
There appears to be a dozen or so that were screen used. The give-away was for just one unit. All of the contests were linked together for the now over promotional sweepstakes. They are supposed to notify the winner this month.

It would be cool if someone from this board gets it!:thumbsup

But I'm pretty sure the giveaway was a replica (as was the one I saw) in the sense that it wasn't used in the film. The logo on the bottom and copyright information would seem to suggest that too...

According to the winner list, it's 'Penny from Syracruse, NY'. Anyone here by that name? :cool
 
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