Karl Yune, whom you may have seen in flicks like ANACONDAS: HUNT FOR THE BLOOD ORCHID and MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA, has joined the futuristic boxing flick REAL STEEL which stars Hugh Jackman as a boxing promoter for robots. According to Variety, Yune will play the role of Tak Mashido, a robot boxer designer.
I still can’t tell if this sounds cool or not. I know it’s based on a Richard Matheson story, but I’ve read that short story (and of course seen the “Twilight Zone” episode inspired by it) and after the very basic premise of a down on his luck ex-boxer trying to set up fights for his broken-down automaton, there’s nothing else to indicate that the film version will resemble the original tale. Indeed, how could it, it’s about ten pages long? (This is a similar situation to what happened with THE BOX, also “based” on a Matheson story.)
Dakota Goyo, Anthony Mackie, Evangeline Lilly, Hope Davis, Olga Fonda, James Rebhorn, Kevin Durand all co-star in the film, which is being directed by Shawn Levy (NIGHT AT THE MUSUEM) and produced by Steven Spielberg.
REAL STEEL is a future-set story where robot boxing is a popular sport and centered on a struggling promoter (Jackman) who thinks he’s found a champion in a discarded robot. During his hopeful rise to the top, he also discovers he has an 11-year-old son (Goyo) who wants to know his father.
REAL STEEL opens on November 18th, 2011.
Evangeline Lilly