Spielberg, Jackman, and REAL STEEL

Steven Spielberg is producing a film about robots.   Let the shocking continue.   Variety is reporting that Hugh Jackman has signed on to star in and DreamWorks has acquired the money to green light REAL STEEL, a film about boxing robots that is to be directed by NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM helmer, Shawn Levy.   This announcement comes as the first act of business in the newly financed DreamWorks, who secured $825 million in recent, financial dealings.

The film, a reworking of the Richard Matheson short story that inspired the TWILIGHT ZONE episode, “Steel”, centers on a world where the sport of boxing, believed to be too violent for humans, is done solely by machines.   Jackman will play a former boxer turned promoter who finds a discarded robot who can’t seem to lose.   The screenplay was initially written by Dan Gilroy with the most recent rewrite being done by John Gatins.

Says Mark Sourian, DreamWorks co-president of production on the project:

When we took it with us, we really highlighted it as something we would put the pedal to metal on.   It’s a project that Steven always wanted to do. It just came together rapidly after we left Paramount.

Production on the $80-million film begins in June.