Cast: Hugh Jackman, Dakota Goyo

Synopsis: A boxing drama set in the near-future where 2,000-pound humanoid robots do battle.

Release Date: October 7, 2011

6 photosEvangeline Lilly

Boxing great Sugar Ray Leonard is the man behind the mo-cap this time, choreographing fight moves with actual boxers (imagine if he played Gollum). Normally I’d make a joke about the spandex and motion-ball outfits, but I value my jaw so I’ll let this one slide. Also featured are stars Hugh Jackman and Anthony Mackie, who do their best to act against nothing. I’m talking about the special effects, you guys. Not Evangeline Lilly.

The film focuses on a group of dads, one of whom would be Stiller, that establishes a neighborhood watch as a bonding exercise but find themselves in over their heads when they uncover a plot to destroy the world. This film would mark the third time that Stiller has signed on as a nightwatchman, only to find himself in over his head. Dicey stuff.

Speaking of the Night at the Museum franchise, Shawn Levy is looking to offer a hand as producer of Watch.

Neither Schaffer nor Stiller have committed yet, but this could serve both parties well, as Schaffer could use this as a very high-profile gig to establish himself, and Stiller could use Schaffer’s edge in doing a comedic film that doesn’t have a number after it. Or the word “Focker.”

6 photosDaphne Joy

Screenwriter Terry Rossio already turned a draft of Pirates 5 to Disney. (CinemaBlend)

Robot Nutshots Galore In ‘Real Steel’ Teaser Trailer

It’s coming out in October, and is directed by Shawn Levy. Were I you, I’d start brushing up on my Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots in preparation for the release date. You don’t want to be embarrassed out there, man.

Fox and producer Shawn Levy are ready to put Alexander through the Night At The Museum Money Making Machine, but they might bring in someone who’s not Levy to direct. *Phew* Actually, someone pretty respectable: Oscar nominee Lisa Cholodenko, the writer/director of The Kids Are All Right. Cholodenko, whose name reminds me of the Chocobo from the Final Fantasy games, would helm the live action adaptation. I’m guessing he wakes up with gum in his hair, and ends up accidentally launching a nuclear missile or something. Meanwhile, he screws everything up with his new love interest character. Hey, the original’s only 32 pages, so they’ll need story filler and lots of it.

Levy and Dan Levine will produce along with the Jim Henson Company. Oh, so he also gets hunted down by giant purple monsters. (Variety)

It’s early in development but Jackman is Levy’s front-runner for the James Cameron-produced 3D trip inside the human body. They most recently worked together on Real Steel and must have had a good time if they’re willing to share a tiny dirigible together inside some dude’s bloodstream.

Robot Nutshots Galore In ‘Real Steel’ Teaser Trailer

Cabin in the Woods looks like it has found a home in Lionsgate. The Joss Whedon-helmed horror pic has so far suffered a year-and-a-half delay that seems to have nothing to do with the quality of the film and everything to do with the corporate typhoon that took place at MGM. Expect release news soon. (Deadline)

Summit Entertainment has snatched up the U.S. rights to the fabled sci-fi novel Ender’s Game, having gotten Wolverine director Gavin Hood attached to the project as well. Summit is waving a tearful goodbye to Twilight, so they’re on the lookout for a new franchise, and this could very well be it. (Deadline)

Fox has taken back Shawn Levy‘s Kodachrome, which Fox had first-look rights to, but didn’t actually get a chance to consider before Levy sold the project to Dreamworks. It was apparently an honest mistake, but I will not let a simple thing like the truth get in the way of a perceived feud between Shawn Levy and Fox. THEY WANT BLOOD! Anyway, Fox decided it does want Kodachrome and exercised its first-look option. (Variety)

Levy’s involvement on a more creative level will almost certainly hinge on Bracken’s final project, but one can assume he has first-look at this film from a director’s standpoint.

Black is the Color is a futuristic sci-fi odyssey in which a 16 year-old with telekinetic abilities that he can’t control teams up with a group of teens on the run from the government.

Did somebody say “dystopian?”

This seems to be yet another project in a steady stream of big-budget studio releases dealing with teenagers in bleak futuristic times. “Blade Runner meets Twilight,” in cliche studio exec parlance.

The first book won’t be out until Summer 2012, so look for Black is the Color to be released in 2014, or “long after this fad of teens in a bleak future has passed.” (Variety)

The knee-jerk reaction to this news is to assume thatReal Steel is REAL-ly good (see what I did there?), but there is a second, more cynical, option: that this is all just publicity for the first Real Steel movie, designed to make people think the movie is actually better than it is. I have no idea if this is plausible, but I do remember reading about the fantastic test-screenings that The Green Hornet had, and that ended up being merely a sort-of-good movie. And besides, when have good test-screenings been a guarantee of success at the box office? But what do I know, I’m a grown man and I’ve never even seen a battling robot before. (Deadline)

The story is about a father and son who take a road trip to develop some pictures. Using a New York Times article as its jumping off point, the film is centered around the mad rush to the last lab capable of processing Kodachrome film. With the rise of digital cameras, it was impossible to keep these labs afloat. Therefore, the father and son characters had to make the pilgrimage or never be able to see their cherished pictures. This actually sounds like a touching story about the special bond that a father and son can spend making memories while on a mission to preserve memories. Sucks about all that driving though. Should’ve planned ahead, dickheads. (Deadline)

The books by Roger Hargreaves have sold over 100 million copies worldwide, so it makes sense that Pac-Man‘s weirdo cousins would end up on the big screen sooner or later. There have already been four TV series, but as far as I know, none of them have horrendously mixed CG with live action, and none of them had an oppressive marketing campaign where every bus stop was plastered with a poster of Mr. Nosey and the tag, “He’s got a nose for trouble.”

Thanks to all his new projects, Mr. Levy is repped by Mr. Ridiculously Wealthy. (Hollywood Reporter)

This untitled unknown pitch that Fox acquired will reunite Levy and Jackman who just finished working together on Real Steel, a DreamWorks film that Disney will be releasing October 7th. This will be Cuse’s first crack at a feature script ever, having worked in television his whole career.

We’ll be sure to share details on this (admittedly lean) story just as soon as we get them. Still, Hugh Jackman? Carlton Cuse? Shawn Levy? I’m getting goose bumps!

Anyway, Shawn Levy, director of Night at the Museum and some other garbage, has signed on to direct the pilot episode (which is about a human family, unlike one of his other projects), which will air on FOX unless they take too long during bathroom breaks and don’t make it in time. (via CinemaBlend)

The Deadliest Warrior

Newbie writers Patrick McKay and John D. Payne, the latter of whom has the perfect name for this assignment, will pen the script for Deadliest Warrior. The series is a reality-history-edutainment-lots-of-fighting show that simulates battles between history’s most renowned warriors, from samurais to KGB agents to super pissed off soccer moms, to see who would most likely win in a skirmish.

We don’t know what the story will be, but I’m guessing the central dramatic conflict is something like: “ninjas think swords are awesome, but aliens love rayguns, so they totally fight and it’s awesome.” I’ll go see that. (Deadline)

Real Steel smashes into theaters Oct. 7, 2011.

Shawn Levy has just brought LARPing to a whole ‘nother level. Paramount has announced that the Night At The Museum director will bring an adaptation of Spike TV‘s "Deadliest Warrior" to the big screen. The format of the show pits fighters throughout history against one another in a hypothetical battle to the death. Experts then gather information to determine who would be the likely victor. The plotline for the film is being kept under wraps for the moment, so sadly we won’t learn what circumstances will bring an Apache and a Spetsnaz into the arena together at this time.

Our condolences to the directors who missed out on this project. Peter Berg must be beside himself. (Cinema Blend)

Filming began yesterday on Hugh Jackman‘s robo-pugilism adventure Real Steel and we have the first set photos courtesy of USA Today. In the film, Jackman plays a washed up boxer who, along with his son, promotes and coaches a robotic fighter to win a boxing championship. We get a good glimpse at the robot, Noisy Boy, in the first pic and note that this is not a CG character. That’s an honest-to-goodness robot pictured with Jackman. Sure, there is always the danger that it might go haywire and attack the crew, but it’s still far safer than working with “Rampage” Jackson. Once his cold eyes are upon you, you’re already dry-humped. You just don’t know it yet.

CHECK OUT THE PHOTOS AFTER THE JUMP…

_{Dakota is sacrificed to Hollywood.}

Dreamworks has been searching for some bright-eyed, innocent young person to fill the role of Hugh Jackman’s son in Real Steel, and rascal Dakota Goyo emerged “victorious.” He’s not to be confused with Dakota Fanning, the states of North and South Dakota, or the Dakota Reach-Around, this thing that Wookie does. From THR:

DreamWorks, making its first movie under its deal with Disney, issued a public casting call in early February. It also conducted open auditions in Chicago and New York, looking for someone to play a “street-smart, tough, charming kid with a hard, untrusting outer shell which hides a warm enthusiastic spirit beneath.”

And they had to go to Canada to find him. What, there aren’t enough punkass little sh*ts in America to fit your desired Jackman spawn? Gimme five days and I’ll give any kid you pick an untrusting outer shell. …The warm, enthusiastic spirit underneath I cannot guarantee.

The grizzly-run media’s ploy to lull children into a false sense of security in the presence of bears has advanced a giant leap this morning with the announcement that The Berenstain Bears will be updated for the big screen. USA Today reports that Night At The Museum director Shawn Levy plans to produce a part live action, part CGI feature film based off the characters made popular in the books by Jan and Stan Berenstain. "I’d like the film to be un-ironic about its family connections but have a wry comedic sensibility that isn’t oblivious to the fact that they’re bears," says Levy in a statement that made me need to open up my dictionary. "The comedy comes from this bear family coexisting in a more recognizably real world."

This is how it starts, people. One day your children are giggling at the anthropomorphic bears on-screen as they participate in the father-son sack race, the next they’re climbing into a windowless van with Pedobear.