Real Steel

Real Steel is loosely based on Steel, a 1956 Richard Matheson short story already adapted in 1963 as an episode of The Twilight Zone. Shawn Levy, director of Night at the Museum, turned it into a family film produced by, among others, Steven Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis, and released under Disney's Touchstone label. Robots replace men in the ring, but the whole film runs on boxing: the jab, footwork, slipping and body work.

Sugar Ray Leonard behind the scenes

The production hired Sugar Ray Leonard, 1976 Olympic champion and world champion in five weight classes, as boxing adviser. He trained Hugh Jackman, who plays a former boxer turned robot handler, and oversaw the fight movement. The bouts were recorded with motion capture and the Simulcam system developed for Avatar, which let the director see the virtual robots in frame while shooting.

Real robots

Legacy Effects, successor to Stan Winston Studios, built full-size animatronic robots for the scenes outside the ring. The visual effects earned an Oscar nomination. Filming took place in 2010, mostly in Michigan, on a $110 million budget.

Who it is for

The heart of the film is the bond between Charlie and his son, played by Dakota Goyo, with Evangeline Lilly as the daughter of Charlie's old trainer. It is a family boxing film with a Rocky-style underdog arc. Boxers will recognise the logic of a well-built fight: a game plan, corrections between rounds and an opponent who tires. It grossed around $300 million worldwide. Reviews praised the cast and effects while finding the story predictable; Roger Ebert gave it three stars out of four.