Taglines: If you get one shot, make it real.
In the near future when people become uninterested in boxing and similar sports, a new sport is created – Robot boxing wherein robots battle each other while being controlled by someone. Charlie Kenton, a former boxer who’s trying to make it in the new sport, not only doesn’t do well, he is very deeply in the red. When he learns that his ex, mother of his son Max, dies, he goes to figure out what to do with him.
His ex’s sister wants to take him in but Charlie has first say in the matter. Charlie asks her husband for money so he can buy a new Robot in exchange for turning Max over to them. He takes Max for the summer. And Max improves his control of his robot. But when the robot is destroyed, they go to a scrap yard to get parts. Max finds an old generation robot named Atom and restores him. Max wants Atom to fight but Charlie tells him he won’t last a round. However, Atom wins.
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 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.”
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.
Real Steel
Oirected by: Shawn Levy
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Dakota Goyo, Evangeline Lilly, Anthony Mackie, Kevin Durand, Karl Yune, Sophie Levy
Screenplay by: John Gatins
Production Design by: Tom Meyer
Cinematography by: Mauro Fiore
Film Editing by: Dean Zimmerman
Costume Design by: Marlene Stewart
Set Decoration by: Victor J. Zolfo
Art Direction by: Seth Reed, Tino Schaedler, Jason Baldwin Stewart, Jeff Wisniewski
Music by: Danny Elfman
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for some violence, intense action and brief language.
Studio: Walt Disney Pictures, DreamWorks Pictures
Release Date: October 7, 2011
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