DreamWorks' Steven Spielberg and Stacey Snider have green-lit the $80 million, sci fi feature "Real Steel", starring Hugh "Wolverine" Jackman.
The film will be the first picture for the studios since raising $650 million production funding from J.P. Morgan Securities and India-based Reliance Big Pictures. Disney also contributed $175 million, for the exclusive distribution of new DreamWorks titles.
"Real Steel" will be set in the future, where human 'blood-sport' boxing has been outlawed for being ultra violent and high-tech 'rock 'em sock 'em ' robots pound each other out in the ring instead. 
In the 1963 "Twilight Zone" episode "Steel", adapted by Rod Serling, based on author Richard Matheson's short story, boxing involving human fighters has been criminalized in the future, with the field now dominated by 'fighting robots'. Former boxer 'Steel Kelly' manages an older model 'B2-model' robot called 'Battling Maxo'. When another robot gets damaged on the way to a fight event, Kelly is contacted to see if Maxo can fight in his place. Kelly assures the promoter that Maxo is up to the task, as he and his partner use the last of their money to get to the venue, for big prize money and one last shot at the big time.
But as Kelly faces the facts that Maxo's functions are broken down from years of wear and tear, he desperately disguises himself as the robot to continue with the fight, almost getting himself killed in the ring by a battling 'B7 robot'. But Maxo is awarded half the prize money for an amusingly 'poor' performance, with loyal Kelly planning to use the money to get parts to fix up Maxo, good as new.
For this latest adaptation of the Matheson story, "Real Steel" will be scripted by Les Bohem and John Gatins.
The property is one of 17 projects Spielberg and Snider retained as part of DreamWorks' split from Paramount. The studio will finance the film entirely, though not opposed to Paramount wanting to finance half, as part of their 'first-look' deal.
Spielberg has always been fond of the project, reading "Famous Monsters Of Filmland" magazine as a kid and thrilling to "Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots" TV commercials, with "He knocked his block off!" becoming a catch-phrase in the schoolyard.
DreamWorks initially acquired the project in 2005 for a reported $850,000, with writer John Gatins handing in the most recent draft screenplay.Production of "Real Steel" will start June 2010..
Click the images to enlarge and Sneak Peek "Twilight Zone: Steel" and "Rock 'Em Sock' 'Em Robots"...
