HughJackman

Young acting hopefuls have a shot at acting opposite Hugh Jackman in the upcoming boxing robot drama Real Steel.

DreamWorks Studios is actively looking for a fresh new face for the upcoming sports sci-fi drama. Jackman stars as a former boxer with one last title shot in a robot boxing championship. He teams up with his long lost son Max, a part currently uncast. Max is described as a charming street-smart, tough, who's complicated and resourceful.

Last week Dreamworks announced they were looking for a young male actor, age 10-14 years old, and have open casting calls set for Chicago on February 14th, and New York on February 20th. Those interested in auditioning can submit a video audition online at realsteelcasting.com, which also has information on the two open calls.

Reel Steel was written by John Gatins (Coach Carter, Hardball), and is set to be directed by Night at the Museum's Shawn Levy.

Several weeks ago, the news broke that Richard Matheson's story story Real Steel was getting the blockbuster treatment courtesy of producer Steven Spielberg and director Shawn Levy, with Hugh Jackman the front-runner for the lead role. Today, Variety is reporting that the project has been greenlit by Dreamworks with an $80 million price tag and a June 2010 start date.

The story follows a former boxer living in a futuristic world where massive robots duke it out in the ring instead of human beings. Naturally, he comes across an underdog robot who he can train to be the best and finds out about the 11-year-old son he never knew he had. Various forms of bonding ensue. The story was previously a mediocre Twilight Zone episode starring Lee Marvin. The robots looked like walking wax figures there, so I expect we'll be getting a Transformers-esque update in that department.

This is Dreamworks' first film since securing new financing and I can see why they picked it. People like Rocky and people like Transformers and people like Hugh Jackman, and Shawn Levy tends to make movies that make a tidy profit.

Switching gears from his middle-of-the-road comedies, director Shawn Levy (Night at the Museum, Cheaper By the Dozen) is taking on a sci-fi sports drama based on a short story by Richard Matheson. The film, Real Steel, takes place in a future world where human boxers have been replaced by realistic androids who are able to dish out more viscerally satisfying carnage on each other than humans can.

Hugh Jackman is the frontrunner for the lead role, and Levy shared a little about his character's place in the script, "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 wants to focus on the father/son relationship at the heart of the story over explosive CGI-driven robot battles.

It's that approach that caused producer Steven Spielberg to hand the project over to Levy, a director whose body of work doesn't even hint at being able to do dramatic science-fiction. Production on Real Steel should ramp up in 2010 with an eye toward a 2011 release date.

(via SciFi Wire)

When he's not clawing his way back to the big screen in a sequel to X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Variety reports that Hugh Jackman is in talks to star in Real Steel for DreamWorks, with Shawn Levy (Night at the Museum) attached to direct. They're pitching this one as a "Rocky-with-robots saga", and it looks to take place in a world where human boxing is outlawed, only to be replaced by giant 2000-pound robot boxing. Nice.

Jackman would play an ex-fighter who turns to promoting and stumbles across a discarded robot that somehow always seems to win. Throw in a subplot that involves the 13-year-old son our hero never knew, and we've got the recipe for a robot flick that won't involve Michael Bay in any way, shape or form. Nice. Based on a Richard Matheson short story (which appeared as an original Twilight Zone episode called "Steel"), Dan Gilroy, Les Bohem and John Gatins have worked on the script.

What do you think of the idea? Anyone familiar with that old Twilight Zone episode? Will this work as a film?

Welcome to Captain's Log -- your (semi) daily round-up of sci-fi randomness from around the web. Here's what's happening today:

-- If you aren't yet convinced that the Twilight marketing machine is way out of control, look no further than these brand new Twilight barbie dolls (pictured above). This should be an interesting scenario for those Twi-hards who love shopping for Emo-related gear at Hot Topic and hate everything that Barbie stands for. What ever will they do now? [People]

-- According to the Los Angeles Times, Paramount will begin developing a G.I. Joe sequel real soon after the film opened up by taking in $100 million worldwide. The entire cast is contractually obligated to appear in one more film, though director Stephen Sommers can opt out if he wants.

-- Back in May it was confirmed that 20th Century Fox would dole out a Wolverine sequel, and at the recent Teen Choice Awards Hugh Jackman confirmed rumors to MTV that it would take place in Japan and quite possibly feature an adaptation of the 1980 comic co-written by Frank Miller that featured Wolverine fighting ninjas. Sounds awesome enough to me ...

-- What in the world was the point of a video featuring girls in bikinis reading Star Wars lines? I have no idea, but it's pretty darn amusing if you ask me. Check out the video -- along with more stories -- after the jump.

Sadly, there's nothing in the new X-Men Origins: Wolverine even remotely as good or as interesting as that one image. This Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) no longer struggles between his two sides. He's smack dab on the side of good, and beholden to the unwritten Hollywood rule, which says that no hero can kill anyone in cold blood (only in self-defense, or in response to senseless acts of cruelty and violence). Sure, he can rage and howl from time to time, but he must pull back at the last second -- to set a good example for the kiddies, I guess. To spur him to action, the film brutally dispatches everyone who's nice to him, from his kind-hearted father/guardian in the opening flashback to the sweet farmer couple that gives him refuge, to his own sweetheart Kayla Silverfox (Lynn Collins). So there's some bad foreshadowing for you: if you help an old lady across the street or tell a romantic story about the moon, you're toast.