Shawn Levy To Direct Robotic Boxing Movie Real Steel

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You might remember reading yesterday that Peter Berg officially signed on for Battleship as part of a two-picture deal at Universal Pictures. Today DreamWorks has announced that they will be replacing Berg on the studio’s futuristic robot boxing movie Real Steel. Who will be replacing Berg? Night at the Museum hack Shawn Levy. Yup, our interest in this project just dropped a good 50 degrees.


The film tells the story of a father and his estranged teenage son who enter the world of robotic boxing. You see, in the future, human boxing has been outlawed, replaced with sports combat between human-trained heavy steel robots. The concept is something we’ve never seen before, and in the right hands, could be a good Summer tentpole film.

However, Levy is best know for directing mediocre or bad comedies, the Night at the Museum series, Cheaper By The Dozen, The Pink Panther, Just Married, and Big Fat Liar. This could mean that the family sci-fi actioner might be redeveloped with more of a comic tone.

But don’t worry, John Gatins , the screenwriter behind Summer Catch, Hard Ball and Dreamer, wrote the most recent draft of the screenplay, which is the final nail in the coffin. Levy tells Heat Vision:

Steven’s passion for this project was absolutely infectious and I’m so excited to bring this story to life,” Levy said. “In a movie filled with these mechanical warriors, at its core ‘Real Steel’ is an incredibly human story.

The only saving grace is Steven Spielberg’s involvement as executive producer. But who knows how much he will be involved creatively. His influence on Michael Bay’s Transformers was very noticeable, but his fingerprints appeared to be completely missing from the sequel, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Levy’s quote seems to imply an enhanced involvement, and an investment in the human story, which gives us some (a little) hope.

  • sanyo
    I wonder how Ubisoft feels about this, considering they have a franchise with the same name..
  • GreatBigLion
    That's Red Steel.
  • sanyo
    Right. Looks like it was a typo or something, 'cause the headline used to read "...Red Steel"
  • Name
    Actually this is a concept we've seen before. It was a Twilight Zone episode called Steel starring Lee Marvin. The setup's identical, but we'll have wait to see if the "Human posing as a robot" element is still intact. Judging from the "incredibly human story" line, I wouldn't doubt it.
  • Keith
    so is it called Red Steel or Real Steel!?

    In the quote they call it Real Steel...
  • Chris
    Futurama had a similar episode. What about Rock'em Sock'em Robots?
  • I can see the merchandise spin-offs already. I bet the toys make more than the film. Any takers?
  • I think I saw this one already, it was called Robot Jocks.
  • jim
    REAL STEEL
  • Colonel_Kurtz
    "In a movie filled with these mechanical warriors, at its core ‘Real Steel’ is an incredibly human story."

    Really? Bite my shiny metal ass. If I want an incredibly human story, I'll watch a movie about humans not rock 'em sock 'em robots.
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