It has been confirmed that Hugh Jackman has been tapped for the Dreamworks production of “Real Steel”, a film based on the Richard Matheson (The Button) story about an ex-fighter that turns to the sport of robot on robot gladiatorial combat to make ends meet. Since he’s poor and can’t afford decent buzzsaws and giant pincers, he must turn to the scrapheap where he magically finds a droid that has the pluck to win!

Director Shawn Levy has revealed more about his upcoming sci-fi movie “Real Steel”, which is being described as “a father/son action drama set in the near future, surrounding the sport of robot boxing.” If that sounds familiar, it may be because the movie will be based on a short story by the prolific sci-fi/fantasy writer Richard Matheson (“I am Legend”, among many, many others), who previously adapted his story into a “Twilight Zone” episode in 1963 called “Steel”. In the interview, Levy says that the movie won’t be an all-out robot action movie ala “Terminator” or “Transformers”. He also confirms that the top candidate to headline the film is Hugh Jackman.

Mr. Wolverine himself is in “talks” for the film “Real Steel”, with a script based on a short story by Richard Matheson, about the day human hand to hand combat for sport is outlawed and robots are put into use to entertain us gladiator style.

Battling robots? You mean like Rock’em Sock’em Robots? Um, not quite. The movie is called “Real Steel”, and at one point “The Kingdom” director Peter Berg was attached. Berg has now moved on, leaving the space open for Shawn Levy.