Four months ago, Hugh Jackman signed on to play an ex-boxer turned robot-trainer in DreamWorks' first live action film to be distributed by Disney, Real Steel. This week, it was announced that small, adorable Canadian Dakota Goyo will play the role of his son.  According to THR, the decision to cast Goyo comes after more than a month of open auditions in several major cities, as well as a public casting call placed on the movie's website. The notice, hosted by ActorCast, called for boys between the ages of 10 and 14, and provided the following (background heavy) character breakdown, which describes the plot of the film in some detail:

He's a street-smart, tough, charming kid with a hard, untrusting outer shell which hides a warm enthusiastic spirit. A complicated, strong-willed and resourceful boy, Max is the product of a broken home, and he becomes the focus of a child custody hearing following the untimely death of his mother. Though his wealthy aunt and uncle would like full custody, his absentee father... makes a side deal with the uncle to look after Max for several months in exchange for much needed cash. Max hits the road with his reluctant dad and uses his computer skills and ingenuity to create a series of boxing robots that perform well enough to get them back on track and, ultimately, lead to a bond between father and son that is unshakable and enduring...

With more than ten film and television credits under his not quite 11 year old belt, Goyo, best known to American audiences for his appearance in Ron Lurie's Resurrecting the Champ, is sure to carry the role competently at the very least. Working with an actor as famed for being supportive and giving as Jackman, he'll probably do quite well. Director Shawn levy, who's action-comedy Date Night opens April 9th, has secured two promising actors in what could be an interesting movie, although I have found there is no way to describe the movie in brief that doesn't sound farcical. It's something about the phrase 'robot boxing'.

Say it out loud... See?

Which is not to say the mere fact that the movie is indeed about 'robot boxing' means it can't work. "The Bible- in space!" "Period Drama- with zombies!" "Rocky- with robots!" Stranger things have worked quite well.  At the moment, I'm most interested in how far this will be set into the future, exactly, and what sort of future it is we're looking at. Of course, if the robots are doing all the boxing, I'm not sure how Mr. Jackman will fill his quota of shirtless screen time, but the man is a professional and I trust him to find a way.

Real Steel is to begin production in June and be released on November 18th, 2011.

Source: THR (via /Film)