The Twilight Zone Adapted A Story That Later Became A Hugh Jackman Sci-Fi Movie

"The Twilight Zone" would often turn to the great science fiction writers of the day to pen episodes for the best anthology series of all time. In particular, Richard Matheson was such a prolific writer that he ended up writing 16 episodes of the show, including popular titles like "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" starring William Shatner. Matheson used a short story he had written for one of his episodes that worked so well, it was expanded into a full-length movie starring Hugh Jackman years later. 

"Steel" takes place in a future where human boxing has been banned and replaced with robot boxing. The story follows a former boxer who manages an outdated robot fighter. The robot is asked to fill in at the last minute, but is damaged beyond repair, so the human manager decides to pretend to be a robot and fight in its place. The manager in the episode was played by Lee Marvin, one of the biggest movie stars to appear on the show.

Predictably, the human is almost killed by his robot opponent and is only given half of the money he was promised since the fight was so one-sided. In "The Twilight Zone," the moral of the story is that humans will always optimistically take on challenges even if they are ultimately hopeless. While that worked for a single episode of television and short story, big changes had to be made when Hollywood and Hugh Jackman got involved.

When the Richard Matheson short story "Steel" was turned into the major motion picture "Real Steel," the tone was softened considerably. Hugh Jackman's character never steps into the ring like Lee Marvin did. Instead, he just trains his robot to become a better fighter. The robot rises through the ranks and eventually takes down the undefeated champion, making for a much more sanitized and uplifting Hollywood ending compared to what Matheson wrote.

This wouldn't be the only time one of the sci-fi author's stories got the big screen treatment. In 1954, he wrote his most popular work, "I Am Legend," which would be made into a film on three separate occasions: Once as "The Last Man on Earth" in 1964, again as "The Omega Man" in 1971, and finally as "I Am Legend" in 2007. Matheson would have one more short story turned into an episode of "The Twilight Zone," as well, albeit for the underrated 1985 revival. "Button, Button" is about a poor couple given the chance to make $200,000 if they press a button that will kill a random stranger. The concept would later be adapted into the film "The Box" in 2009.