A couple of months ago, it was announced that Hugh Jackman would star in REAL STEEL, an action/drama/sci-fi to be directed by Shawn Levy (Night At The Museum), the story is set “in a near future where human boxing has been outlawed, and heavy, humanoid robots slug it out in the ring instead. Into this world step a father and his estranged teenage son, who train an extraordinary fighter.”
DreamWorks bought the spec from Dan Gilroy in 2003, John Gatins (Dreamer) is penning the recent draft. The project has been described as Rocky-with Robot saga. Levy talked, via Sci-Fi Wire, recently and confirmed Jackman in the movie and that the story is indeed kind of like Rocky…
“Hugh Jackman plays a former boxer who can therefore no longer do the only thing he was ever good at and has to make his way in this new world,”
“It’s faithful to the story in that that story was very much about a down-on-his-luck, slightly desperate journeyman who works in this robot boxing sport and who is desperately needing redemption and one last shot. The movie is more Rocky than Transformers.”
“They are most definitely not Transformers, not Terminators, definitely not WALL-Es, either,”
“Unlike a lot of these others, these are human-built, human-scale fighting machines. They are built for human spectacle. People in this movie have gotten bored with human carnage and human violence. So in the quest for more, more, more, this sport has evolved to this.”
Jackman will play an ex-fighter who becomes a promoter in a world where the new gladiators are 2000-pound robots with human qualities. His hopes for glory in Robot Boxing is hampered by his access to sub-standard robot parts, until he discovers a discarded robot that always seems to win, at the same time, we’re also treated with emotional story of him finding out that he’s actually the father of a 13-year old son, and they bond as the robot brawls its way toward the top
REAL STEEL is scheduled to open in 2011
The premise is based on a short story by Richard Matheson that was adapted into an original Twilight Zone episode titled STEEL that starred Lee Marvin.
Uh, how Robot Jox is it? What studio exec had the vision to give this the greenlight? I guess all they were thinking was Transformers which is why Levy is working so hard to say it isn’t like that…
You may have a point there,
That’s probably what Dreamworks studio execs might’ve had in mind