Sci-Fi Film and Television Developments

Real Steel

1/21/10 - According to Production Weekly, filming begins June in Michigan on Real Steel starring Hugh Jackman as Charlie, a downcast former boxer-turned-trainer of boxing robots. Shawn Levy will be behind the camera. The movie is based on a short story by legendary sci-fi author Richard Matheson. In a world where robot boxing has replaced the human version, Jackman would play a Rocky-esque character looking for one last shot. "Hugh Jackman plays a former boxer who can therefore no longer do the only thing he was ever good at and has to make his way in this new world," Levy said. "It's faithful to the story in that that story was very much about a down-on-his-luck, slightly desperate journeyman who works in this robot boxing sport and who is desperately needing redemption and one last shot. The movie is more Rocky than Transformers."

12/11/09 - Touchstone Pictures has set DreamWork's Real Steel to hit movie theaters on Nov. 18, 2011, marking the newly independent studio's first release under its output deal with Disney. The Shawn Levy-helmed film will star Hugh Jackman as a former boxer grabbing one last chance at stardom in the ring by teaming with his long-lost son to train a robot for the Real Steel World Championship.  Directed by Shawn Levy, Real Steel is being produced by Levy, Don Murphy and Susan Montford. DreamWorks co-topper Steven Spielberg figures among the pic's exec producers.

11/12/09 – SCI FI Wire reported that director Shawn Levy confirmed Hugh Jackman is a front-runner to star in Real Steel, a sci-fi movie based on a story by Richard Matheson, which Levy describes as "a father/son action drama set in the near future, surrounding the sport of robot boxing."  In a world where robot boxing has replaced the human version, Jackman would play a Rocky-esque character looking for one last shot. "Hugh Jackman plays a former boxer who can therefore no longer do the only thing he was ever good at and has to make his way in this new world," Levy said. "It's faithful to the story in that that story was very much about a down-on-his-luck, slightly desperate journeyman who works in this robot boxing sport and who is desperately needing redemption and one last shot. The movie is more Rocky than Transformers."  Levy has not cast the main character's son yet but has a good idea about the robots. "They are most definitely not Transformers, not Terminators, definitely not WALL-Es, either," Levy said. "Unlike a lot of these others, these are human-built, human-scale fighting machines. They are built for human spectacle. People in this movie have gotten bored with human carnage and human violence. So in the quest for more, more, more, this sport has evolved to this."  Real Steel is due in 2011.

10/2/09 - Hugh Jackman is in talks to star in the Shawn Levy-directed fighting-robot movie Real Steel for DreamWorks, Variety reported; Jackman would play an ex-fighter who has to reinvent himself when human boxers are replaced by robots.

9/16/09 - Shawn Levy is set to direct Real Steel, a DreamWorks film about a father and son who take a robot to the Bot Boxing Championship, Variety reported.  The film is set in the near future, where combatants control human-like 2,000-pound robots that battle in the ring. John Gatins turned in the most recent script draft.  Levy is expected to direct the film next year.

11/14/08 - DreamWorks is putting a handful of projects on its high-priority list, including several SF&F movies, Variety reported.  While there are many deals still to be negotiated and many green lights yet to be handed out, the studio is expected to move quickly as it builds its Reliance-funded and Universal-distributed slate. Some movies could even go into production well ahead of DreamWorks' original fall '09 target.

Among the projects:
--Cowboys and Aliens: The large-scale comic-book adaptation is now being penned by writer-executive producers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci (Star Trek, TV's Fringe), who took on the gig from Iron Man co-writers Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby. Imagine is producing, and director-producer Ron Howard, who remains a long shot to shoot the film, is developing the project for attached star Robert Downey Jr.

--Real Steel: A futuristic boxing movie being penned by Dante's Peak writer Les Bohem, who created and wrote the Steven Spielberg-executive-produced SCI FI Channel miniseries Taken.

--The 39 Clues: The project is a potential Spielberg directing vehicle, though it's still in script phase, with Jeff Nathanson only recently hired to adapt the first novel, The Maze of Bones, in the 10-book Clues series.

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