James Cameron Robert Rodriguez Split - H 2015
AP Images/InvisionJames Cameron’s more than 15-year journey to bring manga comic Battle Angel Alita to the big screen may be nearing an end.
Robert Rodriguez is in negotiations to direct the live action adaptation of the manga graphic novels that will be produced by Cameron and his Lightstorm Entertainment partner Jon Landau.
Titled Alita: Battle Angel, the project tells of a female cyborg that is discovered in a trash yard by a scientist. With no memory of her previous life except her deadly martial arts training, the woman becomes a bounty hunter, tracking down criminals.
The action-adventure story is meant to serve as a backdrop to themes of self-discovery and the search for love.
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“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,” stated Cameron. “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.”
Added Rodriguez: “Battle Angel is an incredibly rich and vibrant epic in the tradition of Jim Cameron’s spectacular, character-driven films. Getting to work from Jim’s terrific and visionary script while learning the cutting edge techniques he’s pioneered is a master class in filmmaking. It’s an honor to explore the world of Alita along with Jim and Jon, whose films have impacted me for decades.”
Cameron for years intended to direct Alita but other projects kept getting in the way, notably Avatar, which took his attention further when he decided he was going to make three sequels back to back to back.
The project had a script by Laeta Kalogridis (Shutter Island) but it is unclear whether it had undergone further work.
