We know it's being referred to as the robot boxing movie [Real Steel], but truth is, 70% of the movie is the relationships.

To be very honest with you, there were two big factors: One was that we were initially coming out in that week before Thanksgiving where both Twilight 3D and Happy Feet 2 are coming out.

Because I've never made this kind of movie before, so I've never even been to Comic-Con. And Hugh and Evangeline keep telling me, 'Oh, my god... This is such Comic-Con fodder. We're going to have such a fun summer!' Is this the kind of thing they show? That length?

The dozens of people working on this at Digital Domain, they knew that you couldn't get away with almost photo real, because we had real real in the room. You have real real in the cut every four or five shots, so you have this constant yardstick built into the footage by virtue of there being no real robot there. So it became the standard of photo reality that the VFX team had to match.

I'm not sure that I could give notes to someone that I revere. That's a general challenge of directing, giving notes to someone you revere. The other big contribution to this, which most people I show footage to take note of is Mauro Fiore's cinematography is unbelievable.

There's a very interesting article or symposium to be written on just the real difference between comedy filmmaking and non-comedy. Because, you know, when you work in comedy, you depend on audience screenings to tell you about your movie.

We know it's being referred to as the robot boxing movie [Real Steel], but truth is, 70% of the movie is the relationships.