Real Steel

[jo]

Sugar Ray Leonard ‏@sugarrayleonard · 4h4 hours ago
#WorkoutWednesday with one of my favorite actors, @realhughjackman!

I had almost forgotten that this is Hugh's first sports-centric movie, because what remained with me is the blossoming of the father-son relationship...and even the relationship of Max with the almost-sentient Atom.

Sugar Ray and Hugh did go to the Superbowl together for that year.


Jo

[jo]

www.fanlala.com/news/5-amazing-movies-we-think-deserve-sequels

With Jurassic World dominating the Box Office, and Terminator: Genisys hitting theaters this week, it seems like everything being released is a sequel these days.

Unfortunately, some of our favorite movies have been left out of this trend. To mourn the loss of what could have been, or to help raise support for a possible next chapter, we present 5 movies we think deserve sequels!




5. Real Steel - We absolutely love Real Steel, as it’s one of those movies that has the audience smiling from ear to ear the entire time. Hugh Jackman and newcomer Dakota Goyo gave the movie a surprising amount of heart as an unlikely father-son duo, while spectacular special effects created some astounding action scenes. We had too much fun the first time around, and it would be a shame not to make a return trip to the world of Real Steel.

[jo]

A lot of tweets asking for a sequel, which was such a pleasant surprise because there was much dissing of the film before it was released ( that it would be nothing but a rock-em-sock-em robot movie). There were many parents who tweeted about how the movie was their children's absolute favorite!


There was a time when Shawn Levy was saying that they were trying to work out a sequel, with Hugh agreeing to the idea. It was a $ 300 million hit, so there was interest from DreamWorks. But nothing has been heard since.

Also, this is how Dakota looks now -- he has turned into a young man ( he's turning 16 soon).



Could it work if they recast the role? Hugh and Dakota had the right kind of chemistry.

Could it work in much the same way as Ben Stiller's son in the first Night at the Museum movie was portrayed as an even older young man in the third movie of the series?


Jo

[jo]

I watched it again, after a twitter alert that the regional cable TV network was playing the movie.

It is a heartwarming tale and Hugh really revels in father/child roles! A lot of people were skeptical about the movie before it was released and had wondered why Hugh would take on a role in such a movie...but now people keep asking if there will be a Real Steel 2!

Jo

[jo]

Amazing to see that it is still selling well at Amazon -- # 7 of sports movies!

Amazing to see as well that 90% of 1621 reviews on Amazon rated it at least 4 stars of 5, with 72% giving it a 5-star rating.

Based on the comments, it seems many kids enjoyed watching it with their parents or by themselves.


Jo

[jo]

Re the possibility of a sequel --

[mamaleh]

That's a shame. HJ is always so good interacting with children. I'd have liked to see his further adventures with his feisty teen son and their favorite robot.

Ellen

[jo]

They don't make movies with the appeal of Real Steel anymore!

So says Scott Mendelson of Forbes.com --


www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2020/09/27/a-forgotten-hugh-jackman-sports-flick-is-now-one-of-netflixs-most-watched-movies/#6750f05e5444

Sep 27, 2020,01:15pm EDT

A Forgotten Hugh Jackman Sports Flick Is Now One Of Netflix’s Most-Watched Movies
Scott Mendelson



As Enola Holmes and Ratched duke it out at the top of Netflix’s daily “most-watched” list, we have another example an amusing trend this summer. I’m speaking of a relatively old (by Netflix standards) Hollywood biggie that either flopped or mostly faded from pop culture popping up at the top or near the top of those daily lists. This week it’s Real Steel, a live-action fantasy flick starring Hugh Jackman as a “coach” for robot boxers. Yes, the pitch was mocked even before the 2011 DreamWorks/Disney feature opened in theaters, but the Shawn Levy-directed drama turned out to be a real movie. It used its sci-fi hook to tell a conventional and character-focused father/son underdog sports drama with the robot boxers kept in the background and mostly there to justify the budget.

It’s also a solid example of a kid flick using the template for an adult (or non-fantastical) movie for the core narrative. Think Distiburbia being an unapologetic teen-targeted riff on Rear Window, Peter Rabbit essentially being a loose remake of Rushmore, The Angry Birds Movie 2 playing in the same “good guys and bad guys team up against worst guy” hook as Blade 2, Pete’s Dragon being a very loose riff on Mama, or (most obviously) Sam Raimi getting $215 million to make Oz: The Great and Powerful into a PG-rated, kid-friendly remake of his own R-rated Army of Darkness. In this case, Real Steel is almost identical to Sylvester Stallone’s Cannon Group bomb Over the Top ($16 million on a $25 million budget in 1987) but with robot boxers instead of arm wrestlers.

In both films, a down-on-his-luck protagonist attempts to scrape out a living via a given sport and ends up having to spend time with his long-lost son after the kid’s mother falls ill. In Real Steel, the mother dies at the start of the picture, while mom hangs on until the second act of Over the Top. Both films involve rich extended family members, but it’s too Real Steel’s credit that Hope Davis and James Rebhorn, as young Max’s (Dakota Goyo) wealthy but generally caring aunt and uncle. Conversely, Frank Loggia’s wealthy grandfather sends goons to kidnap young Michael and, we later discover, hid years’ worth of letters that Lincoln Hawk penned to his son. Not only is Real Steel a valid “rip-off, don’t remake” exercise, it’s a better film in every way,



Levy makes the smart choice to place his story in small-town Americana, which both allows for a certain 80’s nostalgia and makes what robot fighting we do see appear to be that much more impressive. And the screenplay, courtesy of Dan Gilroy, John Gatins and Jeremy Leven, loosely based on Richard Matheson’s Twilight Zone episode “Steel,” makes the even smarter choice to tell a humanistic melodrama that just happens to exist within the futuristic (2020!) world where human boxing has been banned and replaced by rock-em/sock-em robots. Charlie (Hugh Jackman, who pocketed a cool $9 million for the role) used to be a boxing champ but has struggled with the new normal, and he’s introduced as a old-school anti-hero who only agrees to sign over custody of his son for an under-the-table $100,000 payout.

But since the aunt and uncle had planned an overseas getaway and Uncle Marvin still wants to go, Charlie agrees to feign temporary interest in the kid for a few months before handing him over. The plot is pretty Mad Libs from this point, as father and son begin to know and like each other, the kid’s tech knowledge comes in handy in terms of robot boxing, and their underdog contender (found in a scrapyard, natch) becomes buzzy champion. None of this is intended to be surprising, and the film takes your awareness of the tropes as an excuse to instead focus on character development and emotional oomph. The 127-minute picture has maybe 25 minutes, counting the big final match, of robot fighting, meaning it spends most of its time as a father/son story.


That the film has aged quite well since 2011 is partially a matter of these kind of movies barely existing anymore. It is a smartly-budgeted (the emphasis on humans over robots kept the cost at a reasonable $110 million), character-focused singular feature film with no grander designs for franchises, spin-offs, cinematic universes or the like. The robots are merely there merely because that is the world that Charlie lives in (and because the movie otherwise wouldn’t have been commercially viable). We generally only see the robots when it is relevant to the plot. They don't have personalities, they don't have character arcs, they exist purely as tools of the specific trade. It operates primarily as a father/son melodrama that happens to take place in the world of robot-boxing, rather than a film about robot boxing.

Real Steel doesn’t feature wall-to-wall robot action, so it's not wall-to-wall special effects bleeding out of every corner of the screen. Other than the fighting machines, the movie pretty much takes place in the real world. Since the robot action is limited, the movie could scrape by on a budget that didn't demand $500 million worldwide to break even. By prioritizing character over spectacle, Real Steel was both cheaper and arguably better than it otherwise would have been. While the film didn’t break the bank at the box office, it earned $85.4 million domestic from a $27 million debut. It earned a strong $299 million worldwide, making it the third-biggest live-action sports movie in unadjusted global grosses behind Sandra Bullock’s The Blind Side ($309 million in 2009) and, ironically, Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky IV ($300 million in 1985).

Real Steel has been in third place on Netflix’s daily rankings for the last few days, and it’ll probably disappear from the charts sometime next week as the next “Remember that movie?” Hollywood biggie shows up. That’s the cruel irony of the streaming age. Platforms like Netflix helped destroy the commercial viability of movies like Real Steel (directed by one of the executive producers of Stranger Things, natch) and yet still rely on old-school big-budget Hollywood titles to function, either as casual viewing options or convenient babysitting items. It’s not some grand generational classic, but Real Steel was better than it needed to be and only as successful as it had to be. Yes, it’s absurd that a kid-friendly sports fantasy about robot boxing now qualifies as “the kind of movie they just don’t make anymore.”

I am not too sure that it will readily disappear from the Most-Watched List right away.

*If kids like it as much or almost as much as THE GREATEST SHOWMAN - expect them to keep watching it ...over and over. This doesn't sound like a remote possibility.

*There has been clamor for a sequel on social media as well as when Levy or even Hugh has been interviewed. Wasn't there some early news that Levy was planning one but it has not solidified.

[jo]

Is a sequel to REAL STEEL ripe now -- with Netflix possibly financing the project?

news360world.com/hugh-jackmans-real-steel-is-dominating-on-netflix-right-now-and-sometimes-i-still-think-about-that-possible-sequel/

What happens to Max - it is now 2020 and he must be grown up now? He was 11 yo in the movie.

Jo

[jo]

Like other Jackman movies that are rediscovered by movie fans the second time around, Real Steel seems to have established a strong second following. The idea of a sequel is now discussed by a few film blogs.

www.cinemablend.com/news/2555667/hugh-jackman-real-steel-dominating-netflix-right-now-and-i-still-think-about-that-sequel

Where would you take the sequel?

Life with Dad under more normal circumstances... and they rediscovering that machines can teach humans some lessons, too?

Or would there be a story of who Atom was in a previous life -- and Charlie & Max trace it and they bond in a different way? What happens to his girlfriend - will she join them?

Lol - I wonder what proposed sequels were sent to Levy, Jackman and Spielberg ( exec producer for Real Steel)?


Jo

[jo]

This is great to read --

Shawn Levy and his three top actors in the film ( Hugh, Dakota, Evangeline) & others get together ...


and do reminiscences of how the movie was made ( including Exec Producer Spielberg dipping his hands once in a while)!

ew.com/movies/real-steel-oral-history-hugh-jackman-evangeline-lilly-anthony-mackie/?utm_campaign=entertainmentweekly_entertainmentweekly&utm_content=new&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_term=615ef08390c5510001ba5f1a


"It was always meant to be a father-and-son movie..."

and that is how us audiences appreciated it!


Sequel -- Jackman does not believe in sequels

Killjoy!


Jo

[jo]

[jo]

John DeDomenici
@johndedomenici
·
11m
Real Steel is for some unknown reason number 8 in the country on Netflix today. You know, the Hugh Jackman robot boxing movie. Obviously i have decided to watch it to see if i can bump it up to 7



JoAB
@joab46466753
A movie with a heart - the surprise that most viewers will find about Real Steel! Spielberg was Exec Producer, ShawnLevy(Deadpool3) was Director & Hugh Jackman was lead in a relatively unusual role.

[jo]

UNILAD
@unilad
·
11m
🚨 | Underrated Hugh Jackman film is becoming one of the biggest movies on Netflix

Read more:

[jo]

The Hugh Jackman robot drama storming the Netflix charts again(Credit: Netflix)
FILM NEWS
The Hugh Jackman robot drama storming the Netflix charts again
Debiparna Chakraborty
TUE 5TH DEC 2023 16.00 GMT

There is just something about tales of robots—or any seemingly non-sentient being, for that matter—and love that tends to tug on our heartstrings. So, it isn’t surprising that the Hugh Jackman-led blockbuster Real Steel has once again surged to prominence on Netflix charts.

Directed by Shawn Levy and penned by John Gatins, this action flick has claimed the eighth spot on the Netflix US top ten films chart this week. Despite being about robots battling it out Gladiator-style, this Jackman-Levy sci-fi film earned its fanbase because of its underdog story.

Released in 2011, Real Steel is set in a future where colossal, remote-controlled robots have replaced human boxing. The film follows Charlie Kenton (played by Hugh Jackman), a struggling former boxer turned robot boxing promoter. When Charlie’s estranged son, Max (portrayed by Dakota Goyo), enters the picture, the duo stumbles upon a discarded robot named Atom. Together, they set out to transform Atom into a champion, taking on the mighty opponents of the high-stakes robot boxing world and bonding as father and son along the way.

Real Steel, which was released almost 12 years ago, also celebrated its tenth anniversary and is trending on Netflix’s top ten. In an interaction with Entertainment Weekly, Shawn Levy once shared how he felt when he received the news of Real Steel’s enduring popularity.

“It was strange and thrilling,” Levy told EW. “I sent two texts. One was to Hugh, the other was to [Steven] Spielberg, who was one of the producers of the movie. I’m like, ‘Somehow, we are trending on Netflix.’ I’ve made movies that made more money, but I don’t know that we’ve made a movie that garnered more long-standing, consistent love.”

The success of Real Steel every time it is brought back to Netflix’s library can be attributed to its timeless appeal and the streaming platform’s large fanbase full of action enthusiasts. The film strikes a balance between intense action sequences and a heartfelt story, making it an easy feel-good option every time, with the added dose of giant robots.

It's a story with a heart!

JO

[jo]

In the last few days, there is so much love thrown at REAL STEEL... and also the discovery that HughJackman is a well-loved actor who is very good at his trade.

Sam Miller
@rymer101
·
35m
Loved this in the theater and still love this movie. Hugh Jackman gave a great performance.
Quote
Bondforged Stokes™
@homostokesual

Dec 12
Reel Steel is one of those movies like Megamind or Speed Racer where you don't go watch it in a theater when it first drops you catch it at like 7pm on FX one night and only realise what you were missing out on 10 years after the fact. twitter.com/anyawithay/sta…

JoAB
@joab46466753
·
2m
Shawn Levy ( the movie's director) has said that he was very surprised at how much this movie has been so loved by so many and would ask him for the sequel.



JoAB
@joab46466753
It's probably the unusual relationship between estranged father & son getting back together and how a suspiciously-prescient robot (Atom) became the bridge that linked parent & child! It is also the story of how David(Atom) fought against Goliath(Zeus)! Stories are all familiar😍

11:33 AM · Dec 13, 2023

[jo]

I was chuckling when one tweeter said that when he was young, his Mom, a big Hugh Jackman fan, made him see REAL STEEL 4 times at the theaters!

He was just a boy then...and because of that, he never tried to see it again. LOLOL!

How many kids were dragged by Moms, who are Jackman diehards, to show to the world that the parent was simply accompanying the kid who wanted to see a robot sock'em movie


I did drag my niece to accompany me to see Jackman movies... Including LOGAN, when she blatantly lied about her age ( although at 16 yrs and `10 months, she thought she already qualified for an R-rated (17) movie

She is tall and could pass for a mature person...

And when she came with me to see THE MUSIC MAN in NYC ( she was my travel companion) her sharp eyes noted that Hugh reacted to a hand signal I gave (H-E-A-R-T symbol instead of ovation) at curtain call.

Hugh Jackman does unite several fandoms!


Jo

[jo]

REAL STEEL 2 ?


From Fortress of Solitude --

SS OF SOLITUDE
NEWSLETTER
Home > Movies

SHAWN LEVY CONFIRMS REAL STEEL 2 STILL HAS A FIGHTING CHANCE
Shawn Levy and Hugh Jackman are still very much considering the possibility of Real Steel 2.


by Tito Pernalete April 13, 2024 in Movies



Hugh Jackman's Real Steel 2 Still Has A Fighting Chance
It seems hard to believe that Shawn Levy’s Real Steel (starring Hugh Jackman) was released more than a decade ago. Isn’t it time for a big-screen sequel, Real Steel 2? The good news is that Shawn Levy and Hugh Jackman are still very much considering the possibility of a Real Steel sequel.

For those of you who might have missed this amazing classic, Real Steel is set in the near future, where a washed-up fighter is pulled into the world of an underground robot boxing arena. In a desperate attempt to get himself out of debt, Charlie Kenton (Hugh Jackman) basically auctions off the custody of his estranged son Max (Dakota Goyo) to get a new robot to take part in the fights and get himself out of rock bottom, and instead of simply winning the fight, the endeavour ends up helping father and son learn to love each other. The movie had a massive impact on the sci-fi genre with its winning combination of heart and action.

Though the film left an indelible impression on audiences everywhere, no sequel has emerged despite early rumours of a follow-up floating around for some years.

Even though most news and rumours we’ve heard recently have been little more than hearsay, there remains a substantial possibility that Real Steel 2 may be happening after all, with the news coming from Real Steel director Shawn Levy himself this time.




THE HUGH JACKMAN SCI-FI CLASSIC
Real Steel 2

Back when Real Steel was released, things were much different at Walt Disney Studios. Sure, Marvel was already their most profitable franchise, and Star Wars was about to bring them yet another blockbuster success, but films like Real Steel had a more important place in the studio’s release schedule those days.

Fast-forward to the present and we could easily see a movie like this being released directly on Disney’s streaming platform—not because it doesn’t deserve a release in theatres, but because Disney+ has proved to be a rather profitable business venue for the company.

That’s the trickiest hurdle for any potential Real Steel 2: just what kind of production would it be? Would it risk a theatre release, where it would probably be obscured by some other of Disney’s high-profile releases, or would it be a direct-to-streaming affair?


Maybe that identity crisis is why we’ll be seeing a Real Steel show before we hear any word on a potential sequel.

Let’s not forget that, at the time of its release, Disney distributed the film, but DreamWorks Pictures produced it. The distribution rights ended in 2016, so it’s essentially a corporate miracle that there’s talk of a show being made for Disney+ in the first place.




A REAL STEEL DISNEY+ TV SHOW
Real Steel 2 TV Sequel Series
In early 2022, we learned that Shawn Levy (who directed the original Real Steel) was working on an early concept for a Real Steel TV series that would debut exclusively on Disney+.

Also tied to the project is producer Robert Zemeckis, who will no doubt give the series his trademark seal of quality. At the time of this writing, no writer is formally attached to the project, which could mean that it will be some years before anything comes to fruition regarding this show.


However, the series has never been touted as the long-awaited series that fans have been expecting. As far as we know, Hugh Jackman might not even be a part of the Disney+ series, but he’s undoubtedly a fundamental part of the franchise.

Some fans have long considered a proper Real Steel 2 a pipe dream, but Levy seems intent on making it a reality, including Hugh Jackman.




WHY WE NEED A REAL STEEL SEQUEL
Real Steel Movie Sequel
Some fans might argue that the original film concluded its plot in a satisfying enough manner without needing any sequels at all. However, a good story becomes a great story if you can tell it again without boring your audience, and that’s precisely what a sequel does. In many cases, sequels are necessary to provide some closure or resolution for the story that’s already begun – not so much in Real Steel‘s case.

Perhaps to find the best example of what we should expect from a potential Real Steel franchise, we should look back at the most iconic boxing film series of all time.

Just like the first Real Steel film, Rocky didn’t explicitly need a sequel to go down in history. As we know, Rocky would eventually become one of the most prolific sports franchises in the history of cinema – setting the standard for every boxing film since. Even though it became somewhat formulaic in later sequels, Rocky was always successful because of its excellent character development, and that’s something we should hope for from a possible Real Steel 2.




Now, we’re not expecting this franchise to become a carbon copy of Rocky – I doubt anyone would be claiming to see a Real Steel 5. Still, it could follow in the footsteps of the People’s Champ and focus its attention on more character development for the sequel.

After all, the film is great fun for fans of fighting robots – let’s face it, everyone loves fighting robots; however, the heart of the story lies in the interactions between the characters, which is something we could always see more of in the sequels.

That’s why it’s so important for fans of the first movie that Real Steel 2 continues the story of Max and Charlie Kenton, as it just wouldn’t be the same without the two in the series.

Earlier in the article, we mentioned that Shawn Levy still hopes a Real Steel 2 with Jackman will become a reality, and that’s where things get truly interesting for die-hard fans of the film.





HOPES FOR REAL STEEL 2
According to Levy, plans for a Real Steel sequel have been on the back of his head for a while now. In 2011, when the first movie was released, the director/producer was associated mostly with comedies like the Night at the Museum series, but now, he’s better known for far more “strange” projects for Netflix.


According to JoBlo.com, Anthony Mackie, who starred as Finn in the first movie, still calls Shawn Levy twice a year with talks of a sequel and hopes that they will one day be able to make a sequel for the robot story happen. Fans of the sci-fi boxing movie are hoping that they will get to see other starts from the movie, like Evangeline Lilly

His work on Stranger Things gained him worldwide popularity, not to mention his business partnership with Ryan Reynolds – a relationship that brought us Free Guy and Netflix’s The Adam Project.

Now, Levy is attached to producing the Real Steel Disney+ show, but he still hopes to direct a proper sequel someday. Rumours even claim that Reynolds would also be co-starring alongside Hugh Jackman in the tentative sequel, something that fans of both Deadpool and the X-Men films would love.





NEW UPDATES ON REAL STEEL 2

During CinemaCon, where new footage of Deadpool & Wolverine was being presented, Screen Rant caught up with Shawn Levy to discuss the potential for Real Steel 2. Surprisingly, the director affirmed ongoing discussions with Jackman about it and even highlighted a key reason why they still hold onto hopes for a sequel:

We always talk about Real Steel 2. Because the world won’t let us forget, and I’m glad for that.

We still haven’t got official confirmation on whether or not Real Steel 2 will be coming to theatres, but, at the very least, fan petitions and Shawn Levy’s enthusiasm for the franchise seem like strong indicators that it’ll happen somewhere down the line. One thing’s for sure, and it’s that Erik Nash, the supervisor behind the best visual effects that actually earned him an Oscar nomination, deserves to return for what could be the next huge hit in robot boxing.


After all, we might soon be getting a Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots flick starring Vin Diesel, so it seems fair that Hugh Jackman should get another chance at bringing a boxing robot to life. Let’s hope that it happens sooner than later! This unique combination of sci-fi action and sports drama is hard to come by, and even harder for it to star one of the best actors currently working in the entertainment business.