Evangeline Lilly

“Real Steel,” the Hugh Jackman-starring robot-boxing movie out in theaters this weekend, owes a lot to its first incarnation — as a sci-fi short story by Richard Matheson that the author helped adapt into a  1963 “Twilight Zone” episode, the film’s director said. Shawn Levy and Evangeline Lilly talked about the origins of the film during Monday’s early IMAX screening, hosted by Hero Complex’s Geoff Boucher. “It’s been in development for eight, nine years, and frankly, in that period, ‘Transformers’ got made, so that made a certain tonality kind of off limits because it had been done,” Levy said. Hear more about ”Real Steel’s” back story in the video above, and be sure to check out the previous installments of the interview talking about Jackman’s generosity as an actor, the decision to film with actual remote-controlled robots, the casting of young […]

“Real Steel” actor Dakota Goyo, 12, was selected from “hundreds of boys” for the role of Max because of his “authenticity,” director Shawn Levy told the audience at Monday’s early IMAX screening of the film. “We did know that even if the rest of us did everything right, if the kid isn’t great, the movie can’t be great,” Levy said at the Los Angeles screening, hosted by Hero Complex’s Geoff Boucher. “I saw a lot of really talented kids, but I knew this part needed something different or more. It’s what Ricky Schroder had in ‘The Champ.’ It’s what Justin Henry had in ‘Kramer vs. Kramer,’ Henry Thomas had in ‘E.T.’ It’s what Spielberg calls an authenticity. It’s separate from acting.” Watch the video above to find out more about Goyo’s casting and performance, and be sure to check out […]

In an era when most movie effects are computer-generated, creating real, remote-controlled robots was “the most central decision” for “Real Steel,” director Shawn Levy told the audience at Monday’s early IMAX screening of the film. “In this moment, you can do everything digitally, so most movies just do everything digitally,” Levy said at the screening, hosted by Hero Complex’s Geoff Boucher. “It’s quicker. It’s often cheaper. So this notion of building real, full-scale, remote-controlled robots is kind of heresy now because it’s unnecessary. But it’s not unnecessary if you consider that you are going to get a visual reality and a reality to the performances that is incomparable.” Evangeline Lilly, who starred opposite Hugh Jackman in the robot-boxing film, which opens this weekend, praised Levy and the filmmaking team, saying the experience of acting with a real robot was considerably […]

One of the biggest challenges Hugh Jackman faced while filming “Real Steel” was putting aside his good nature to portray someone who behaves despicably, the film’s director Shawn Levy said at an early IMAX screening. “Truly, in any profession or category, he is maybe the actual nicest guy in the world, Levy told the audience at Monday’s screening, hosted by Hero Complex’s Geoff Boucher. “That was a source of great discomfort for him, especially in the scenes where it was him and Dakota [Goyo, his on-screen son,] and I would push him to be really kind of hard toward this kid.” Both Levy and Jackman’s “Real Steel” co-star Evangeline Lilly praised the actor’s warmth, kindness and generosity. “When you’re acting, a lot of it is very selfish, and a lot of the time, it’s every man for himself,” Lilly said. […]

The billboards and posters for “Real Steel” may focus on the robot boxers, but the film’s director, Shawn Levy, and actress Evangeline Lilly say the movie’s real mettle has less to do with robots than with the relationship between a father and son. “If it was going to be unique, if you’re going to make a robot movie in 2011… it had to be different, and it had to be about more than its machines and more than its action. I always felt that this thing was gonna sink or swim on the basis of its heart,” Levy told the audience at Monday night’s free IMAX screening of the film, hosted by Hero Complex’s Geoff Boucher. Lilly, who stars opposite Hugh Jackman in the film, which hits theaters Friday, said that she was at first skeptical when she read the […]