Oscar winner Mauro Fiore, ASC jumps back into the VFX ring for the robot-boxing drama Real Steel.

In Real Steel, Charlie Kenton (Hugh Jackman) is a boxer who, in trade parlance, “could have been a contender.” But in the not-too-distant future, after human prizefighting is outlawed, boxing becomes a ‘robots only’ sport, forcing Charlie to keep his hand in the only way he can: managing low-end battle ‘bots. Reuniting with his estranged pre-teen son (Dakota Goyo), Charlie is inspired to build a fighting machine that can knock everyone’s block off, and go the distance.

While evoking every classic boxing movie from The Champ to Rocky, Real Steel’s storyline actually derives from Science Fiction Hall of Fame inductee Richard Matheson’s short story Steel, which the author adapted into a poignant Twilight Zone episode starring Lee Marvin. Nearly 40 years ago, Matheson’s adaptation of his story Duel resulted in a memorably harrowing TV-movie that launched the career of Steven Spielberg, who executive produced Real Steel and convinced Shawn Levy to direct. Cinematographer Mauro Fiore, ASC, came aboard shortly thereafter, as he recalls: “I had a two-hour meeting where Shawn described the film conceptually. He had this melancholy view of the future that involved looking back at imagery of a nostalgic past.” READ the rest of the article on ICGmagazine.com