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Hugh Jackman and Dakota Goyo star in REAL STEEL, a DreamWorks Pictures' action drama directed by Shawn Levy. © DreamWorks II Distribution Co., LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Real Steel (2011)

Opened: 10/07/2011 Wide

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Genre: Sci-Fi/Drama

Rated: PG-13 for some violence, intense action and brief language.

Synopsis

A gritty, white-knuckle, action ride set in the near-future where the sport of boxing has gone high-tech, "Real Steel" stars Hugh Jackman as Charlie Kenton, a washed-up fighter who lost his chance at a title when 2000-pound, 8-foot-tall steel robots took over the ring. Now nothing but a smalltime promoter, Charlie earns just enough money piecing together low-end bots from scrap metal to get from one underground boxing venue to the next. When Charlie hits rock bottom, he reluctantly teams up with his estranged son Max (Dakota Goyo) to build and train a championship contender. As the stakes in the brutal, no-holds-barred arena are raised, Charlie and Max, against all odds, get one last shot at a comeback.

Long Synopsis

In DreamWorks Pictures' gritty, white-knuckle action ride "Real Steel," Hugh Jackman stars as Charlie Kenton, a washed-up boxer in the near-future who, because his sport has been taken over by 8-foot steel robots, now lives in a world where he doesn't fit in. With no fights and no prospects, Charlie is forced to hustle as a small-time robot fight promoter. He earns just enough money to survive by piecing together low-end "bots" and traveling from one seamy underground boxing venue to the next for whatever prizefight he can wrangle for his automatons. Just when things can't become any more desperate and complicated, his estranged 10-year-old son Max (Dakota Goyo) suddenly and unwillingly comes back into his life. I

The alienated father/son duo reluctantly team up to rebuild and train a scrap-heap robot and turn it into a boxing contender. As stakes in the brutal, no-holds-barred fighting arenas are raised, against all odds Charlie gets one last shot at a comeback, and Max discovers that, win or lose, life holds more for him than he ever expected.

Exploring the deeper depths of the story, "Real Steel" Director Shawn Levy experienced it as a tale of redemption for three lost and forgotten souls. "The main characters----a father, his son and a machine----are each abandoned beings," the director says. "All three of them have been cast aside and forgotten. The substance of the story is about how this trinity has a chance of returning to grace."

"Real Steel" is produced by Don Murphy, Susan Montford and Shawn Levy. Executive producers are Jack Rapke, Robert Zemeckis, Steve Starkey, Mary McLaglen and Josh McLaglen. The screenplay is by John Gatins, from a story by Dan Gilroy and Jeremy Leven, based in part on the short story "Steel" by Richard Matheson.

"Real Steel" also stars Evangeline Lilly, Anthony Mackie and Kevin Durand.

The Premise

Imagine a time in the near future when boxing fans have become bored with watching human beings pummel each other. It's a time when the public's thirst for violence and carnage is greater than what mere mortal athletes can give----or take. It's a world in which boxing has evolved to the point where men no longer compete against each other----robots have replaced pugilists.

The idea of boxing robots was a provocative one for noted director Shawn Levy who is widely regarded for his box-office hit comedies "Night at the Museum" and "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian." When DreamWorks first presented him with the idea for "Real Steel" he says he was attracted to the project because of the pitch from Steven Spielberg and Stacey Snider. "They called me up and talked about what at first sounded like a crazy idea for a movie," Levy recalls of his initial response to the story. "Of course I was super-flattered, but I was on the fence about the premise. Then I read the script. What I found was an opportunity to make an emotional father/son/sports movie. That was galvanizing for me."

"We were thrilled to get to work with Shawn," comments Stacey Snider, Principal Partner/Co-Chairman/CEO, DreamWorks Studios. "And we believe that with this movie, he's even surpassed the great work with which he's previously been associated. 'Real Steel' is a real game changer."

Shawn Levy grew up not only as a fan of boxing but also as an ardent admirer of boxing movies such as "Raging Bull" and the "Rocky" series of films. "Even the not-so-great ones are awesome because there's usually an underdog hero and you want him to have a comeback and to give his all and ultimately triumph," the director says. "'Real Steel' is absolutely an homage to those boxing movies that I watched with my brothers fifty times."

Although "Real Steel" is an action movie complete with visually remarkable American landscapes and big-action spectacles, director Levy did not want to rely simply on either the wide-open vistas or fantastic robot machinery in order to explore the relationships in the story. "For me, this movie couldn't be just big and loud and cool," Levy says. "That would have been unoriginal. The screenplay had a unique human heart at its core, so the movie had to be an interesting hybrid of badass action and scale, with a really sincere and warm-hearted story that is ultimately about salvation."

The Cast

Director Levy and his producing team spent a great deal of time finding the perfect actor for each of the roles in "Real Steel" and are thrilled that all brought more than expected to their characters.

The value of the project that instantly drew Hugh Jackman ("X-Men Origins: Wolverine," "The Prestige") to the role of Charlie is the same thing that made the director and DreamWorks eager to be part of this unique story. Jackman says, "What I loved first and foremost about the script is the father/son relationship and the idea that people who have made mistakes, who have regrets, can get a second chance, and they can become better people."

Jackman was also intrigued by the world in which the story is set. "I loved the idea of the time period being not too far in the future. It's a future that is seemingly accessible to us," the award-winning actor says. "Also, I'm a big sports fan, so the robot boxing idea fascinated me. And of course it's a real underdog story with the person who has the most heart winning in the end. It's definitely a feel-good movie. And for me it was something different from what I've done before. Also, working with Shawn Levy was a no-brainer. Shawn is just about the most positive, energetic and fun person to be around. The shoot was one of the most challenging and enjoyable I've ever had."

For the role of Max, the son who was abandoned early in his life by Jackman's character, the filmmakers auditioned hundreds of boys and found many exceptional young actors. "We always had the feeling that there would be a kid out there who would be talented and who would have the right look, but would have that little something extra, something that you can't quite put your finger on but is magic up on the screen," director Levy says. "When we met Dakota Goyo, a kid from the suburbs of Toronto, we knew that he had that special indefinable quality we were looking for. He has that thing that I'll never quite find the right word for. When you watch the movie you'll see what I mean. It's undeniable."

Jackman reiterates his director's strong feeling about casting the role of Max. "The heart of the movie is the father and son relationship. When Shawn and I first discussed casting the role, we agreed that we had to have a great young actor and that if we didn't have great chemistry between the father and son, we didn't have a movie," Jackman says. "Sure, we may have cool action and great robots and all that, but the father/son bond is the spine of the movie."

For the role of Bailey, which went to popular television star Evangeline Lilly ("Lost"), director Levy admits that he was already a big fan of the actress and was thrilled that she accepted the role. "I marvel at Evangeline," Levy enthuses. "I was crazy for her on 'Lost.' I was a big fan of that series. I always knew she was good, but I didn't know that she was great. And in 'Real Steel' not only does she deliver in the big dramatic scenes between her and Dakota and her and Hugh but also even when she was in a crowd of thousands of people reacting to the fights. In those tiny short cutaways within the fight scenes she brings so much visceral, rousing energy. She was kind of an audience surrogate for us. She is so into it and so vested in what happens."

Recalling her introduction to the role and ultimately being cast in "Real Steel," Lilly says, "I received the script from my agent and when I started reading and discovered it was about robot boxing I immediately thought, 'No way! I can't do a movie about robot boxing! This is so not me!' I'm invested and interested in cool little indie films. But I kept reading, and by the time I finished the script, I was so moved and so touched and it was so heartfelt and well written, I wanted the role."

Kevin Durand, who had previously worked with Hugh Jackman in "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," and with Evangeline Lilly on "Lost," was cast as Ricky, the robot fight promoter who, despite a long-standing friendship, isn't shy about fighting Charlie to collect on a debt.

Rounding out the cast, the filmmakers hired Anthony Mackie ("The Adjustment Bureau," "The Hurt Locker") as Fin, the host of the Crash Palace; Tony® Award nominee Hope Davis ("God of Carnage") for the role of Deborah, Max's aunt who has her heart set on obtaining custody of her nephew; and James Rebhorn ("White Collar," "30 Rock") as Marvin Barnes, her wealthy older husband. Russian actress Olga Fonda, with little previous film work, was cast as the Russian robot owner, while Karl Yune ("Memoirs of a Geisha," "Speed Racer") portrays Tak Mashido the world's premiere robot designer and the pioneering legend behind the sport of robot boxing.

The Bots

The robot designers were a talented team of incredible craftsmen at Legacy Effects, who created a wide range of fascinating boxers for "Real Steel"--all with distinct personalities.

The filmmakers wanted each of the robots to have specific personas and aesthetics, as well as different color palettes. The robots range in size from 7' 6" to 8' 5", and are anthropomorphic in that they have two arms, two legs, a torso and a head (or in the case of robot Twin Cities, two heads). But they are able to do things that human beings can't. It was a challenging but ultimately fulfilling creative process between the robot designers and the filmmakers to come up with the perfect cast of robotic personalities.

Director Levy says, "I want the audience to be conscious of the fact that although the film has a science-fiction premise, these are not science-fiction robots. The robots are things that we'd like to believe humans could have built. Apart from the scale of them----they're not 'Transformers' scale and they're not indestructible----we've given them some frailty and humanity in a way that reminds us of such antecedents Iron Giant or Wall-E."

The Technology

Director Shawn Levy gives credit where credit is due and says that for the amazing technology used in "Real Steel," he and the special effects teams "borrowed many pages from the technology that James Cameron developed for 'Avatar.'"

The director further explains, "This is a next generation approach to visual effects. Simply put, instead of the traditional way where we shoot an empty frame and then computer animators draw in a robot later, we did motion capture, where we had real boxers choreographed by Garrett Warren and Sugar Ray Leonard actually boxing each other. We took the data of their body movements. Digitized it. Stored it. Then, months later we come to a real set and lined up a shot. I could then take that programmed motion-capture data and use what's called Simul-Cam B to feed that stored data into a real-world place.

"It's taking the technology that was literally invented on 'Avatar' but doing something a little different with it. 'Avatar' took motion-captured performances and put them in a virtual world. We're taking motion-captured performances and plugging them back into the real world."

Levy admits that the process sounds complicated and does us a favor by putting it in even simpler terms. "Here's what it all really means," he says. "We put fighters in the ring wearing data capturing jumpsuits. They do the fight. Their moving data----the data that is their motion----is converted into a robot avatar on the screen simultaneously. Then we're able to go to our live fight venue, line up a camera on an empty ring, and the technology allows you to take the robot fighting that you did six months earlier and put it in that ring in real time as you're watching it. And that's Simul-Cam B."

The Experience

Director Shawn Levy sums up his experience working on "Real Steel": "There's something very satisfying about the fact that the movie on the screen is the movie that was in my head," he says. "It's the movie I pitched to Steven [Spielberg] and Stacey [Snider] the first time I sat down with them. And we have been able to stay faithful to that initial instinct."

Hugh Jackman adds, "All my professional life I've wanted to be in a movie that affected me in the way 'Rocky,' 'Chariots of Fire' and 'Dead Poets Society' did when I was growing up. Those movies inspired me, got me jumping out of my seat, made me laugh and totally involved me emotionally. This is the realization of a dream for me. I feel we've made a movie that will entertain and inspire people in the way those movies did for me."

Producer Don Murphy says, "I think 'Real Steel' has something for everybody. It's got boxing for the men, robots for the boys, Hugh Jackman for the ladies, and the family aspect for everybody."

Producer Susan Montford wholeheartedly concurs. "It's a beautiful story with an identifiable, relatable journey and big spectacle. I think we've got everything. It's going to be massively appealing."