Hugh Jackman in talks to Star in REAL STEEL
Hugh Jackman is currently in negotiations to star in a DreamWorks film being directed by Shawn Levy called, Real Steel. The film is a Rocky-esque tale of a fighter who has to reinvent himself when human boxing becomes obsolete, replaced by 2000 pound human-like robots. Jackman is negotiating to play the ex-fighter, who becomes a Robot Boxing promoter, but whose chances of success are hampered by his access to sub-standard robot parts. That is 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.
The movie is based off an original story by Richard Matheson which was masde into a Twilight Zone episode called Steel. He recently worked on I Am Legend.
In The Twilight Zone episode human boxing has been taken over by fighting robots and human boxing has been outlawed. Former boxer Steel Kelly manages a B2-model robot called "Battling Maxo." Maxo is an older fighting robot and we learn that due to his age, he is not in demand. Kelly and his partner have used the last of their money to get to the fight venue. He is being given this chance due to the fact that one of the scheduled fighters was damaged in transport. Kelly has to assure the fight promoter that Maxo will be able to fight. After the fight promoter leaves Kelly and his partner and mechanic, Pole, argue about Maxo's condition and that he needs new parts. Kelly feels that Maxo should be able to go through with the fight despite Maxo's age and condition. While Pole tests Maxo's functions, an arm spring lets go and they don't have the parts or the money to fix him. Kelly decides that since they are from out of town, he would disguise himself as Maxo in order to collect the money necessary for repairs. Steel enters the fight disguised as Maxo. However, despite a valiant effort, he is unable to damage the B7 robot he is fighting, even when he lands an unblocked punch directly in the back of its head. He is nearly killed after lasting a little under three minutes. The crowd jeers Maxo's performance, not knowing that it is a human doing the fighting. Afterwards, the fight promoter will only give them half the prize money because of "Maxo's" poor performance. The episode ends with Kelly telling Pole that with the money they will get the parts to fix Maxo.
Shawn Levy directed such films as Night at the Museum series, Cheaper By The Dozen, The Pink Panther, Just Married, and Big Fat Liar.
I'm interested to see how closely this movie follows the original Twilight Zone episode. What do you all think?
Source: Variety