For years preceding AVATAR, James Cameron was talking about possibly directing an adaptation of Yukito Kishiro’s manga, Battle Angel Alita. When he doubled, then tripled, then quadrupled down on this Pandora nonsense, lining up three sequels through 2018, it seemed that BATTLE ANGEL was not on his to-do list anymore: "My intention when I made AVATAR was to do BATTLE ANGEL next. However, the positive feedback for AVATAR and the support of the message of AVATAR, encouraged me to do more of those films."
So thanks, moviegoers. You killed JAMES CAMERON’S BATTLE ANGEL ALITA. Hope another 7 or 8 hours of these blue folk are worth it.
But a worthy successor wants to sit in the director’s chair: Robert Rodriguez.
Rodriguez is in talks to direct ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL for Fox. Cameron would stay on as producer, and made this statement in support of the new director:
”Robert and I have been looking for a film to do together for years, so I was pumped when he said he wanted to do BATTLE ANGEL. He’s very collaborative and we’re already like two kids building a go-kart, just having fun riffing creatively and technically. This project is near and dear to me, and there’s nobody I trust more than Robert, with his technical virtuosity and rebel style, to take over the directing reins. We’re looking forward to learning a lot from each other while we make a kick-ass epic.”
Don’t forget that getting Rodriguez attached to a property doesn’t necessarily mean it’s getting made: he’s been linked to films based on Madman, BARBARELLA, RED SONJA, FIRE AND ICE (which Rodriguez was still talking up at this year’s SXSW), and most recently JOHNNY QUEST that have obviously failed to manifest. But Rodriguez hasn’t had a real hit since SPY KIDS 3D in 2003 (though the fourth entry did alright internationally), and working on a big-budget adaptation for the director of the two biggest movies of all time might be just what the doctor ordered. Plus, you know, female leads and feminism and such.
Rodriguez hasn’t gone full sci-fi before (though SPY KIDS sometimes came close), but he should feel right at home telling the story of the memory-addled cyborg who hunts down baddies in the Scrapyard and beyond in the 26th century. Cherry Darling was as endearing and cheer-inducing as any of his male protagonists; if he can do with ALITA what he did with Rose’s character in that film, then we might find ourselves completely being fine with Cameron dropping the project after years of talking it up.
