USA Today carry the first look at
Hugh Jackman and his robotic boxing surrogate in the $80 million futuristic sci-fi blockbuster
Real Steel (
Dreamworks, Nov 2011), which only began filming yesterday. Based on
Richard Mathesons short story
Steel, the movie is set in 2020 where boxing matches between humans have been outlawed and the sport is now a spectacle between hand-built robotic fighters. (Potential Spoilers follow after the jump if you aren't familiar with the original story) Sadly, the robots are physically a million miles away from their depiction in the
1963 Lee Marvin starring Twilight Zone adaptation where they were more like humanoids, like Terminator's. Unsurprisingly with
Steven Spielberg and
Don Murphy producing, and the amount of money put into the film, they have gone for clunky
Transformer like robots. A mistake, I think. They look ridiculous of course, and watching them battle each other will be a snooze-fest because we won't be able to get emotionally involved. The original
Twilight Zone episode was so effective because the slow moving humanoids were methodical and kind of creepy, in a Frankenstein kind of way. These robots won't carry that.
I don't mean to spoil anything BUT the second act twist is that the retired boxer (Jackman) illegally goes back into the ring in robotic disguise to fight in a reinvention of the
John Henry folklore, but now that doesn't make sense. How can Jackman pull a ruse over anyone when the robots are so un-human like? Or maybe that isn't the direction this story goes? We've heard for a while that the added sub-plot of a father finding out he is father to an 11 year old son he didn't know about and the pair connecting to build this unbeatable robot to become World Robotic Boxing Champ, may actually be the whole thing here. Maybe this is more THAT kind of family friendly story and would probably explain why
Shawn Levy, the director of
Cheaper By The Dozen and
Night at the Museum, is the guy behind the camera.
Apparently, 19 real-life animatronic giants have been hand-built but CGI will be used for some of the fight sequences, which are being conducted under the advice of boxing legend
Sugar Ray Leonard. Cast includes Kevin Durand (a Texan promoter), Anthony Mackie (boxing promoter), Evangeline Lilly, Hope Davis and Olga Fonda. 11-year-old Canadian Dakota Goyo plays Jackman's son.