Beaks here...

In the future envisioned by Shawn Levy's REAL STEEL, mankind will get their pugilism fix by building and training robots to bash each others bolts in. This sounds much more civilized than humans impairing each other with their fists, but, as this film is executive produced by Steven Spielberg, I've a feeling we'll be asked to invest emotionally in the violence visited upon these mechanical creations. According to the official synopsis released by Disney (which will distribute the DreamWorks production), Hugh Jackman will play a "washed-up" boxer who's forced to become a trainer when the sport becomes roboticized (seems fairly hopeful to think that boxing will still be around in the future given its plummeting popularity today). The eight-foot-tall fella to Jackman's right is Atom, a "junkyard find" who gets rebuilt to wreak havoc in the ring. I'm no Shawn Levy fan, but I'm impressed that he's decided to build actual robots rather than rely solely on CG. This sounds like a very big movie. If they're going for a futuristic take on THE CHAMP, I might actually be looking forward to this. REAL STEEL is expected to hit theaters November 2011. Below is a picture of Levy chatting with Hugh.