The robot-addicted minds at Weta Workshop helped design the star of Neill Blomkamp's new sci-fi romp. Chappie's makers tells Chris Schulz the five steps essential for building a great big-screen bot.
1: Your best idea is often your first one
Chappie is a full-length reimagining of director Neill Blomkamp's 90-second short Tetra Vaal from 2004. The title character is a police robot that is decomissioned, then fitted with a prototype AI programme that allows him to learn, grow and develop apersonality. Despite Weta's senior concept designers Greg Broadmore, Christian Pearce and Leri Greer spending hours on extra drawings and designs over several years, Chappie's design is remarkably similar to what they started with. "We did the very first designs on Chappie back in 2010," says Christian Pearce. "We went on this big long design process and did hundreds more pieces of artwork. But when we were boxing up the final physical prop of Chappie to send him off to set, it was really close to some of those original ideas."
The best robots have human features. Think Robocop, or C3PO. "Chappie's design was broadly anthropomorphic -- he was human shaped," says Broadmore. "The key thing is the face -- anthropomorphic robots often have human faces, but Chappie doesn't. We were tweaking his design right up until we were putting the final mannequins into the box. At one point he had a screen that could show little emoticons. Right at the last minute we designed a visor so the actors had something to work with; that stayed. Then the animators and [Chappie's voice actor] Sharlto Copley bought him to life."
3: Make each robot the best one you've ever done
Chappie isn't the only robot on display. Hugh Jackman's mulleted military man Vincent Moore spends the first two thirds of the film campaigning to let his gigantic prototype "The Moose" loose in Johannesburg when police robots get out of control. When The Moose is finally released, all hell breaks loose. The Weta boys built a full-scale model of The Moose, and loved every second of it.
"It was the coolest thing that Weta Workshop has ever built," says Broadmore. Pearce agrees. "It was an amazing thing to see come together day by day," he says. "It probably didn't need to get built. I think Neill really just wanted a full-scale Moose (for his collection)."
4: Listen to what the boss wants
The Moose wasn't the easiest robot to get right. In fact, getting his look, feel and weaponry pefected took years. "There was always going to be this boss robot that Chappie gets into conflict with," says Broadmore. "We worked on concepts over a couple of years and none of them quite clicked with Neill. Eventually he sent through a quick 3D model that he bashed together. It was fantastic -- it was 80 per cent of what The Moose became. Neil is such a talented guy I feel like if he had more time he wouldn't need us at all." Pearce: "We're lucky enough that there's only one of him so we can be involved."
5: Live and breathe robots
Broadmore, Pearce and Greer are "three of the biggest robot fans" around. And like many people who love their jobs, they find it difficult to switch off when they go on holiday. "I take my sketch book when I go travelling," says Greer. "I was in Thailand with my sketch book and I should have been drawing what I saw in front of me. Instead, I just sat in a cafe drawing robots. I looked up and saw a sign in Thai, so I wrote Thai lettering on the robot."
Best robot of all time?
If you want to kickstart an argument between robot geeks, just ask the lads from Weta Workshop who the best big screen bot of all time is.
"Yeah it probably is, no wait, it's the Iron Giant," says Christian Pearce.
"I think Terminator is pretty cool, he's an amazing design," says Leri Greer.
Back to Pearce: "It probably is Robocop - the original one. But then we grew up with C3PO and R2D2, and they're amazing designs.
"You're going to start a fight."
One thing they all agree on is that Chappie, and his big screen foe The Moose, were influenced by Robocop, the 1987 Paul Verhoeven film that has a dying cop remade into a one-man robotic police enforcer.
If Chappie is a homage to Alex Murphy, then The Moose pays tribute to Enforcement Droid Series 209, a fan favourite after it goes haywire during a demonstration in a corporate boardroom.
Christian Pearce, Leri Greer and Greg Broadmore agree that bots are great, but not which is best.
"When you see the Moose you'll see the parallels [to ED-209] there," says Pearce.
The playful banter proves the Weta trio adore robots - Greer once bought a print of C3PO without his head "for the beauty of the wires twisting out of his neck". And they're loving the comeback bots are making in Hollywood this year, with Chappie, Ex Machina, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Terminator: Genisys and Star Wars: The Force Awakens making this the Year of the Robot.
But no matter how big a robot fan these guys are, there's someone who will always outdo them, and that's Chappie director, Neill Blomkamp.
What:Chappie designed and constructed by Weta Workshop for director Neil Blomkamp's return to his native South Africa where he made his breakthrough debut District 9.
