Ahead ofReal Steels release on Friday, we caught up with director Shawn Levy to discuss the film.

I think thats the key thing.

Its going to be a redemption story for Hughs character, a father-and-son movie.

This is next generation.

I can speak in more detail, but virtually my entire production and effects team came straight offAvatar.

The first choice was very retro, which was that we were going to build real robots.

Theyre converted into robot avatars, and plugged into real venues.

So really, theres a technological paradigm in this movie that didnt exist two years.

It just looks like a real fight with real things, with real mass.

We worked very hard at that.

This paradigm youve talked about, what does that mean to you as a filmmaker?

Does it make your job easier?

Both on the firstMuseumand onReal Steel,I spent the first month of pre-production completely lost.

I literally would sit in meetings with these tech wizards and understand fucking nothing.

I need a fucking tutorial right the fuck now.

I got a crash course in motion capture, and simul-cam technology.

Eventually, I got a mastery of it.

The robots are very much slotted into a recognisable world, rather than a futuristic one, arent they?

Thats why I did it.

I knew that I wanted the world to be near-future and recognisably our own.

You mentioned the Americana.

Theres a real clash there.

The shininess changes, right?

But it was really fun to have different looks for the underground and the league.

Weve hadThe Fighter,and nowWarrior…

Have you seenWarrior?

I though it was fantastic.

And thats MMA, right?

Yeah, which I didnt know anything about, which didnt matter at all.

In the 70s you hadRocky,The Champ.

Raging Bullwas 1980, I believe.

They appeal to our yearning for clear winners and losers clear good guys and bad guys.

There are no report cards, there are no grades.

Ironically, again, people have said, how are we going to care about any of it?

BecauseReal Steels about robots.

Sports movies give us this very elemental, rooted interest in the storytelling.

You mention heroes and villains.

I have to say, Kevin Durand was brilliant.

In the early drafts of the script, thats a character whos just very mean to Hugh Jackmans character.

And all along, Steven Spielberg was saying, Im telling you.

I think we should bring him back.

Hes got to get his.

Hes a great bad guy.

Also, there arent that many actors out there who could kick the shit out of Hugh Jackman.

But Kevin Durand, at six-foot-six, hes one of them.

Hes really that big.

What it felt like when you knew it wasnt your night.

We loved that part of it.

When you move your head to the left, the robot moves his head to the left.

When you nod, that robot nods.

So those moments were real robots, not CG ones?

Theres a scene where the boys looking at Atom, and he goes, Can you understand me?

And he goes, Dont worry, your secrets safe with me.

And Atom has these hydraulic pipes that run out of his back and to the controller.

Then Id go to the puppeteer, You watch that kid, and mirror whatever he does.

And so all of that was unrehearsed.

All of that was real.

I suppose the obvious question is, will there be a sequel?

I would be super happy if theres a next one.

In fact, as has been reported, were working on the next one the script.

Shawn Levy, thank you very much.