I personally can’t wait for the day when robots completely replace human athletes in the world of professional sports, but in the meantime I guess I’ll just have to settle for seeing this scenario unfold in science-fiction films. Dreamworks currently has one such movie in development under the name Real Steel. Set in a not-to-distant future where human boxing has been outlawed, the story revolves around a father and son team who who take a robot to the Bot Boxing Championship — a competition where 2000-pound human-controlled robots duke it out in the ring. The director? Night at the Museum helmer Shawn Levy.

Apparently Peter Berg was attached to direct this movie for a while, but has since dropped out of the project. Levy seems like a strange replacement since he is known mainly for comedies, and as far as I know, this movie is being played somewhat straight. However, he does have experience with special effects blockbusters. Robert Zemeckis and Steven Spielberg are both listed as executive producers, while the latest draft of the script was written by John Gatins (Coach Carter, Dreamer). Kind of an odd little project, no? I’m sure the success of Michael Bay’s Transformers has figured in to this in some way, but I don’t know that it can capture quite the same audience. Are you game for more PG-13 giant f’n robots?