It seems that Shawn Levy's robot movie has found a viable human lead actor. According to Variety, Hugh Jackman has signed on as the lead of Real Steel.

The film, based off a short story by Richard Matheson, revolves around a world where human boxing is outlawed because of excessive violence, and replaced by robot boxing with 2,000-pound robots duking it out. Jackman would play an ex-fighter-turned-fight-promoter who finds an abandoned robot that somehow seems to always win.

Shawn Levy is directing the film, from a script by Dan Gilroy, with rewriters by Les Bohem and John Gatins. Steven Spielberg is also executive producing alongside Levy.

No production schedule was given, but it was said that the studio was hoping to go into production before next summer.

Real Steel was released October 7th, 2011 and stars Hugh Jackman, Dakota Goyo, Evangeline Lilly, Anthony Mackie, Kevin Durand, Hope Davis, James Rebhorn, Marco Ruggeri. The film is directed by Shawn Levy.