So it’s like “Rocky” with Hugh Jackman as the coach to the heroic robot fighter?
Here’s your first look at “Real Steel” the new Jackman project that started shooting today (Monday, June 14). Directed by Shawn Levy, we assume this must be some kind of quantum leap project for the director of “Date Night” and the new “Pink Panther” with Steve Martin, but then again, those “Night at the Museum” films do have their effects and big set pieces (confession, this writer has never seen one)
The project is a boxing drama set in the near-future where 2,000-pound robots that look like humans do battle. But more specifically, the film is also about a father-son (Dakota Goyo plays the boy) team training an unusual robot to win a boxing championship after Jackman’s fall from glory as an actual human boxer. So it’s like “The Champ” for the modern age, right?
The film also stars Anthony Mackie, Evangeline Lilly, Kevin Durand, Hope Davis, James Rebhorn and our new collective crush, Olga Fonda.
A Dreamworks film (their first post-financing project, so all eyes will be on it eventually), “Real Steel” also boasts name producers such as Don Murphy, Steven Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis. The budget is $80 million, which is big, but still much smaller than the average tentpole. Apparently motion-capture will be used during the fight sequences, but 19 real-life animatronic giants were created for scenes with the human actors.
Earlier this year, Jackman shot “Butter” with Jennifer Garner. He was also supposed to shoot “Avon Man,” but that one seemed to fold for the meantime. His next role will probably be Lee Daniels’ upcoming civil rights drama, “Selma” which last we heard shoots this fall. “Real Steel” is already slated for a November 18, 2011 release which will pit it against “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn” and “Happy Feet 2 in 3D.” Someone might move on that game of chicken and we would expect it to be the Levy film, since it’s not a built in franchise. We’ll see. [USA Today]
