Real Steel is a 2011 American science fiction sports drama film directed by Shawn Levy and written by Dan Fogelman. The movie is loosely based on the 2000 short film of the same name by Hugh Jackman. The film stars Hugh Jackman, Zac Efron, and Dakota Fanning. The movie is set in a future where robot boxing has become a popular sport, and a young boxer named Hugo Jackman, whose father was a champion robot boxer, enters the sport with the help of a washed-up robot boxer named Ambush.