VOD Spotlight: New toys for “Arthur”

In the original 1981 film Arthur, the immature billionaire (Dudley Moore) drove a Rolls-Royce and got into trouble. In the remake, the film’s creators felt that Arthur (played by Russell Brand) would need far more bling to be convincingly wealthy. “In 1981, you could put someone in a tuxedo and give him a Rolls Royce and say he was a billionaire, but in 2011 people have a different concept of what it means to be incredibly wealthy,” says director Jason Winer. “They’ve seen it all. So we had to come up with more extreme and unique ways for him to spend his money.”

So the film’s creators found Arthur eccentric items to juxtapose with his antique furniture. These includes an NASA spacesuit, the Batmobile from Batman Forever, a full-size boxing ring and the DeLorean from Back to the Future. But the oddest of Arthur’s possessions is a floating bed.

Though it was created by digital editing, the real thing actually exists. The $1.5 million bed, created by Universe Architecture, is suspended between industrial magnets so it floats without visible supports. It made its debut at — where else! — the Millionaire Fair in Belgium, a place where Arthur Bach would likely want to drop some cash. The full-scale bed can hold nearly a ton of weight. It is held to the ground by cables to keep it from slipping out of alignment and crashing to the ground. New uses are being found for the concept, including floating sofas, coffee tables and pet beds. The strong magnetic field gives the bed a disclaimer that those with pacemakers should not sleep on one and, in a comedic moment in the film, one of the characters wearing a bit too much metal gets stuck under it.

“Arthur” is now showing on Video On Demand. Check your cable system for availability.

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© 2011 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. Credit: Barry Wetcher