Tuesday afternoon, CinemaCon audiences were treated to an extended preview of the coming drama Real Steel, starring Hugh Jackman as a washed-up boxer now handling underground robot boxing matches. In a twist of fate, he’s reunited with his estranged son and the duo begin training a beat-up old robot they find to fight in a championship match.

Based on the short story Steel by Richard Matheson, the film was directed by Shawn Levy and will be released on October 7th. “The film really borrows a page from the movies I loved growing up,” says Levy. “There’s a real underdog element to it.”

Speakeasy sat down with Levy and Jackman after the presentation to talk about the film:

The Wall Street Journal: The footage of the film was different from what I was expecting from the film, given what I’d seen in the trailer.
Shawn Levy: How many times do we hear that? Everything says that — not just press, but even my mom. For months, we’ve been saying, ‘You’ll see,” and today’s footage is us beginning to show the full complexity of the movie.

Hugh Jackman: My son is going to go ballistic for this film. This is a bad father story, but I had read the script a couple times and was trying to read it some more, but my son had to go to sleep, so I said, let me read you the script. and he loved it. So I was doing my homework on my son’s time but what was worse, was that he wouldn’t go to sleep afterwards and made me read it to him for several nights.

It seems like a premise that kids would understand, given the popularity of the Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em robot game.
Levy: In the absence of footage, people have kind of reductively asked, “Is it like Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em?” and the truth is, that the movie is maybe 30% robot fighting and the rest of about Hugh and his son, Hugh and Evangeline Lilly’s character.

Is there an element of artificial intelligence to the robots?
Levy: There’s the suggestion of AI. It’s funny, in editing the movie, I’m having conversations with Steve, my executive producer, about how much we want to confirm or deny, and the movie is about floating on that edge. And that’s, if we hit the sweet spot, magical — but it’s not magic if its confirmed.

When did you start designing the robots?
Levy: We started preparing the movie seven months before we shot it. Hugh and me and the writer worked on the script to flesh out the human journey, but me and my production designed designed 20 robots. The way we wanted to do the movie was with real boxers, so motion capture with simulcam. That means, there’s a real boxer in the ring. He’s instantly converted into a robot on the monitor. To use that approach, you have to pre-design the robots. Most visual effects movies, you don’t design the creature until later. With my “Night at the Museum” movies or Hugh’s “Wolverine”movies, you’re acting against a tennis ball and an animator draws in the behavior of the creature. In this film, it was real boxers I was directing, with Sugar Ray Leonard, who were converted into their robot avatars. We also built real robots. When that robot comes alive and the kid looks at him, it’s incredibly.

Jackman: They work from the waist up. They can stand, and we interacted with them. The guys who puppeteer them are real artists.

Levy: I would play music on the set to give the puppeteer the vibe that I wanted, and they would puppeteer to the score.

Jackman: We have really intense scenes where I”m talking to the robot, or someone else is talking to the robot, and to actually have the robot there was amazing. That was one of the things Steven [Spielberg] confirmed for you –

Levy: Yes, he told me, I know “Jurassic Park” was a long time ago, but I’m telling you, building some of those real dinosaur elements was huge for performance. My first meeting in New York with Steven, he planted that seed. We built this robots and the difference in performances you get, especially from the 10-year-old, is night and day than if you were acting to a piece of tape.

Speaking of boxers, how did you get Sugar Ray Leonard to consult on the film?
Levy: We wanted a consultant on the boxing who was legit, who would be creative and know what life in the ring would be like, for two reasons: To vet the story, and just as importantly, to work with Hugh on the mindset of being a former boxer.

Jackman: He was amazing. He taught me some shadow boxing, but also the mindset of that corner guy. Sugar Ray, his persona as a boxer was style and flair, he had all that. We have 20 robots and each has to be incredibly distinct, and he really gave them all signature moves. That’s what he was known for as a boxer myself. I saw him on TV last night.

Levy: I know. It’s hilarious – bad ass Sugar Ray on “Dancing With the Stars”!

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