Some news just fails to make any sense to me. The immensely talented Hugh Jackman is currently in discussions with Shawn Levy, studio-led director behind Night at the Museum, The Pink Panther and Cheaper by the Dozen, to star in Real Steel.
Variety discusses the concept behind the film as:
“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.”
This sounds like super-hokey family science fiction, with a strange marriage of genres. The original concept was engineered by genre writer Richard Matheson, creator of I Am Legend. In any director’s hands, I’d be expecting at least a creative hodgepodge of ideas, but with Levy helming the film, we’re almost guaranteed something bland. Real Steel is being co-written by John Gatins, the brilliant mind behind Meet Dave, Norbit and … Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings!?
The film will be executive produced by Steven Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis. Details on Real Steel here on AtomicPopcorn as the project develops.
