The first teaser and a couple of fresh images for the new Hugh Jackman robot boxing drama Real Steel have arrived online and you can see them below.
Based on Richard Matheson’s short story (which itself has previously been adapted for a Twilight Zone episode), **Real Steel **finds Jackman as Charlie Kenton, a former boxer whose life has gone from winning fights to training robots to fight instead. We’re in a near-future world where humanity’s lust for violent pugilism has evolved beyond what human fighters can endure, and now hulking machines clash in the ring. Charlie’s down on his luck, hustling matches in underground fighting leagues and looking for his mechanical meal ticket.
But then he’s forced to reconnect with his son Max (Dakota Goyo), who he abandoned as a baby, and together the pair works to restore and train Atom, an old sparring ‘bot they rescue from a junk heap and who might just be more than he seems…
To coincide with the trailer’s release, **Empire **sat down with director Shawn Levy, who is busy editing the film. You can read more of Levy’s thoughts in a separate story.
When we asked whether he was nervous to be premiering a trailer so far ahead of the film’s release (it doesn’t arrive until next October) when several scenes rely on extensive effects work, Levy stood by the work of his VFX crew so far. “I think that, on the one hand, our audience, our culture is so savvy now to an assumption that teaser effects are not fully representative of the final product. But in the same breath, I would say there's no shot in the teaser that I'm not really happy with."
And he’s also standing by the story. “To me, what is interesting about this movie is its combination of relationship naturalism with the fighting. It's like a single conceit movie. The world and the people are very much the way we know them to be, but this sport has evolved. As opposed to a movie where everything feels fantastical, it was really important to me, and I recognise it's not the first movie with robots in it, but that blend of naturalism in performance, writing and design with the futurism of this sport.”
Finally, that shot you see of Mohawked mechanical man Midas delivering a straight punch to what can only be described as, er, the nuts and bolts of Samurai-influenced ‘bot Noisy Boy? Credit fight legend and boxing consultant Sugar Ray Leonard with that one. “One of the funniest moments in that Crash Palace fight is that all of a sudden Midas drops down to his knee and does a full-on straight-arm to the non-balls of Noisy Boy. When Ray came to the boxing gym, he watched it and said, 'you know what would be crazy, because you could never do it with humans...' So among the many contributions of Sugar Ray Leonard was the full-on straight right to the balls to Noisy Boy. Which I thought was funny because I'm expecting all kinds of crazy technical boxer stuff and in addition to that, I got the punch to the balls...”
As well as the trailer, there are two new pics, one of mighty robot warrior Midas, who takes on all opponents in the illegal underground venue of Crash Palace and one of Atom sparring with Jackman’s Charlie Kenton. Check them out below in our gallery.
**Real Steel **is out in the IMAX format on October 7 next year.