Boushh ‘PAUL’ costume story
My Boushh costume used in ‘PAUL’ the new film by Simon Pegg and Nick frost.
For those who don’t know a while ago I was contacted by the wardrobe department at Universal Studios in LA to make a Boushh costume for a new film that was being made. With such a tight time frame and little chance of making and sending a costume in two weeks I posted them my costume to use. That film is now out to buy here in the UK and I am aloud to talk more about it. The film starring Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Kristen Wiig, Jason Bateman and Sigourney Weaver is called ‘PAUL’ . It is about two English comic geeks who take a trip to the US to visit Comic Con and take a road trip across America via Area 51. On the way they run into an alien called Paul who has escaped the base after 60 years and seeks help to return home to his own planet.
After being contacted we spent a whole weekend building a new staff to go with the costume, which we were able to brake down small enough to ship abroad. The costume was bubble wrapped and boxed and off it went for two weeks. The lovely people at the wardrobe department kindly let me know when it had arrived and photographed every little weathering scratch just in case it had happened in transit. The only damage the costume sustained was the stalk on the helmet which they kindly glued back in place. Kristen tried on the costume and it seemed to fit fine. I knew the costume was being used for the re-shoot of the final scenes and therefore new the costume would not appear in the film until the very end. I sat in the cinema and there it was right at the very end as the credits were rolling and the final scenes were being played out, Kristen appears in full costume with the helmet. I must say her voice amp is much better than mine. She removes the helmet and has the cowl piece around her neck. The staff never made it to the shot but never mind, it felt fantastic seeing the costume up on the big screen and has fulfilled a lifelong ambition.
Kristen is wearing my real pig skin tunic, under tunic, cowl, boot covers, gloves and my leather trousers. You can also see the helmet, bandoleer, tanks and armour. It looks very clean and new but up close it is well used as I costume nearly every other weekend in it. Now the costume is safely back home I am boxing it up in the hope that one day I will get it signed by all the cast. So I can carry on costuming I am now working on a new, more accurate costume. I am sourcing better materials and with all the images I have of the original costume I am re-creating every little detail. I will post progress on my webpage and on my Facebook page for anyone who is interested.
I hope you get to see the film and hope you enjoy watching my new project evolve.