RealSteel

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 The film, Real Steel, takes place in a future world where human boxers have been replaced by realistic androids who are able to dish out more viscerally satisfying carnage on each other than humans can.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?