Hugh Jackman Hangs With Boxing Robots
Posted by Neil Miller (neil@filmschoolrejects.com) on November 24, 2009
Hugh Jackman has played a man with a harder-than-steel skeleton, but he has never really taken on anyone made of steel. At least, not beyond fighting giant steel Sentinels in X-Men as Wolverine. This time though, Jackman will be stepping into robot boxing movie Real Steel for Dreamworks, which is based on a short story by Richard Matheson.
Jackman will play a struggling Robot Boxing promoter who finds a discarded robot that always seems to win. He also discovers he has a 11-year-old son, and they bond as the robot brawls its way toward the top. The rest of the story will center on a fighter (still to be cast) who has to reinvent himself when human boxers are replaced by robots.
According to a Variety report, the Shawn Levy directed sci-fi film will be made on a budget of $80 million, which is much lower than you might expect from a big robot film. However, the story — penned by Dan Gilroy — is said to be grounded in the father-son relationship. Though Levy does describes it as a “rousing sports movie” with Jackman’s character “a former boxer who can no longer do the only job he’s good at, and one particular robot that may be his return to grace.”
Production is set to start in June. And as you can see, pre-production and casting are already underway.
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