Vin Diesel will star in a new live-action film based on Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots, the latest in the burgeoning list of films based on classic children's toys. According to a report by Variety, the story will follow a father, played by Diesel, who forms a bond with a fighting robot alongside his son. If that sounds oddly familiar, it may be because 2011's Real Steel had basically the same plot. Real Steel was joking called a Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots film when it was first released, but the film starring Diesel will be the real deal. Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots is a two-player boxing game first introduced in 1964. It features two boxing robots — Red Rocker and Blue Bomber — who punch one another until the loser's head pops off. A video Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots video game was released in 2006. It was extremely bad.
Diesel's new Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots movie is a part of a broader trend of children's games being adapted into movies going back to at least 2012 when Universal Pictures released Battleship. Battleship lost an estimated $83 million for Universal, but that hasn't stopped Mattel from developing a string of films based on properties like Uno and Barbie. In the meantime, Vin Diesel continues to be quite busy these days. F9, the latest entry in the Fast & Furious series, is set to release in May, and Diesel is also attached to an animated series based on Ark: Survival Evolved. Kevin McKeon will lead the Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots project for Mattel Films. Ryan Engle, who wrote Rampage, is writing the screenplay. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Kat Bailey is a Senior News Editor at IGN. She saw Real Steel on a plane once and actually liked it quite a bit.
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