Jackman to Star in Robot Boxing Movie "Real Steel"
In October 2011, Hugh Jackman's newest movie "Real Steel" is set to be released. Based on a Richard Matheson (writer of "I am Legend") short story "Steel", the movie is set not too far in the future where the sport of boxing has been taken over by boxing robots. Hugh Jackman stars as Charlie Kenton, a washed up ex professional boxer who could have once been number 1 in the world. Barely making enough cash to survive by fight scrap metal robots in illegal fights, Charlie is really hitting rock bottom. When his estranged son arrives, the two team up to try and make a bit of money by fighting a new robots in street boxing circuits. When Max discovers an old abandoned robot half buried in mud in a robot parts junk yard, their fortunes begin to change. Max persuades Charlie to let "Atom" fight, and soon Atom becomes a star.
A new trailer for "Real Steel" has just been released showing new scenes and some exiting action. The movie is directed by Shawn Levy, who made his name through the "Night at the Museum" films, with executive producer Stephen Spielberg. The new trailer certainly shows some of that Spielberg shine, really highlighting the relationship between the Father and Son which was not in the original script.
DreamWorks bought the original screenplay from Dan Gilroy for a reported $850,000 in 2003, however it wasn't until 2008 when DreamWorks and Paramount parted ways that work really began on the movie. Les Bohem and John Gatins were brought in to edit the script and one of their tasks was to change the focus of the storyline away from the robot boxing and towards the human and human-robot relationships. It was thought that this would give the movie a wider appeal for different people, making the film more enjoyable for more. Bohem and Gatins also changed some the settings for scenes, moving away from the cityscape and embracing the traditional "Americana" for example state fairs.
Filming began in June 2010, and alongside the cast were some interesting props. The film makers commissioned the construction of 19 fully functioning life size robots for the human and robot interaction scenes. The purpose of these was to make the scenes more authentic and realistic, as well as giving the actors some real robots to interact with.
"Real Steel" is released in UK cinemas on 7th October 2011.
