Imagine riding the subway to work in the morning and being faced with a polar bear. Scary, right? Well this is exactly what recently happened to early morning travelers in London. Thankfully the bear was animatronic although people must have taken a second look just to make sure! The incredibly realistic creature was given 'life' by two of the character actors from the celebrated West End show 'War Horse.'
The bear was put out on the streets by the Sky Atlantic team behind the Arctic based show 'Fortitude.' The lifelike creature took eight solid weeks to create and a team of 19 prop people used more than 60 different kinds of material in its creation. The attention to detail was incredible with nylon hairs threaded into the skull one by one in order to pass a current through them so they would stand on end.
In the drama 'Fortitude' polar bears outnumber the residents of the town by 3000 bears to just 713 people. Sky Atlantic's director Zai Bennett wanted to bring a real looking polar bear onto the streets of the U.K. capital in order to give the public a real feel of what it must be like to be up close and personal to one of their show's biggest stars.
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