Last night Leicester Square was buzzing with anticipation for the Premiere of Real Steel, the latest blockbuster from the Director of Night at the Museum. This science fiction sports movie is set in the near-future where human boxing is outlawed, and so robots take their place. Hugh Jackman takes the lead role as a retired boxer who sets about building a fighting robot with his son played by Dakota Goyo.
Fans lined the blue carpet in anticipation of the stars’ arrival. Among them were a younger audience who had turned up to see the 12 year old star Dakota Goya, a relative newcomer who seems to be on the rise. Although the main attraction was of course Hugh Jackman and there was no shortage of Wolverine posters being passed about.
The blue carpet was soon filled with a variety of celebrities, sportsmen and key industry figures there to enjoy the first UK screening of Real Steel. Among the guests were new girl band Parade who were happy to pose for photos and talk to the media. Also present were some of the girls from The Only Way is Essex and Made in Chelsea, most of whom were willing to discuss their respective shows with fans. Both series are set to return over the coming months.
Boxing World Champion Amir Khan showed and commented how he
thought Hugh Jackman “looks in great shape, looks like he’s been training very hard. When we were talking before he was saying how he was training with Sugar Ray Leonard, a legend of Boxing.” “I want to see the film to be honest with you, I’m excited to see how he fights.”
Director Shaun Levy also attracted a lot of attention and clearly was enjoying every minute of the evening. In regards to the movie he said:
“I really wanted to do a different kind of movie. I’ve had a lot of fortune with comedy and Spielberg called and said he wanted me to do this robot boxing movie, and I knew this is the kind of opportunity which does not come along every day.”
“I like movies which have something familiar and relatable and then just dial it up. So with this, there is a very relatable father and son story, a very relatable underdog story, but set against the backdrop of something that isn’t real. And is that regard it is related to my ‘Museum’ movies although this is a different tones but that is a combination I like.”
One of the last to show was Hugh Jackman, who ensured that he signed autographs for any fan who had shown up and made time to speak with everyone. When he was asked about how the film differentiated from the other big robot film Transformers he told us:
‘Like Transformers there are some great special effects, but it’s based in reality and the movie is really about the human story. It’s more Rocky than transformers. It’s about the father and son story’
During production Jackman worked with Sugar Ray Leonard who helped to choreograph the fight scenes by working with motion capture. Jackman seemed very fond of the boxing legend and mentioned how the experience was ‘ Awesome, he taught me how to box and the last thing he said to me is do not make me look bad!’
As for the future, Jackman mentioned that he would be back in London soon for his next role in the film adaptation of Les Miserable. He will play Jean Valjean and will be joined by Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway and Geoffrey Rush. The project will be helmed by the King Speech’s Tom Hooper who was also present at the premiere although shied away from the press.
Real Steel itself looks to be a far cry from the wooden Transformers series with a focus on acting rather than just SFX and all the better for it. The studio itself must think highly of it as there are already talks of a sequel being on its way with John Gatin hired to write the script. Real Steel will be released on the 14th of October 2011 in UK cinemas.
