DreamWorks Pictures principals Steven Spielberg and Stacey Snider have greenlit the Rocky-esque robot tale Real Steel starring Hugh Jackman, reports Variety. Filming will start in June.
The Shawn Levy-directed futuristic film, budgeted at about $80 million, is based on a short story by Richard Matheson that was adapted into an original “Twilight Zone” episode.
Jackman will play an ex-fighter who becomes a promoter when human boxing is outlawed for being too violent. The new gladiators are 2,000-pound robots with human qualities. The ex-fighter’s access to sub-standard robot parts hampers his hopes for glory in Robot Boxing, until he discovers a discarded robot that always seems to win. The ex-fighter has also discovered he’s the father of a 13-year old son, and they bond as the robot brawls its way toward the top.
Levy describes the film 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.”
