Before he switched his attentions fully towards the Avatar franchise, a feature-length film adaptation of Yukito Kishiro’s Battle Angel Alita manga was on the cards, before he officially handed the project over to Robert Rodriguez. While it’s been quiet on that front for a while, apparantly a lead has now been found in the form of Rosa Salazar.
According to Collider, Scorch Trials star Salazar beat off competition from the likes of Maika Monroe (It Follows) and Zendaya (Spider-Man: Homecoming) for the role of Alita, an amnesiac cyborg from the 26th century who is rebuilt anew, retaining her formidable martial arts and bounty hunting abilities, but unfortunately not her memories. Having impressed in the second Maze Runner movie, she seems like a solid choice, and the fact that she beat off such strong competition for the role definitely qualifies as a vote of confidence.
Speaking to Collider, Cameron said of the decision to hand things over to Rodriguez, “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.”
Rodriguez is directing from Cameron and Laeta Kalogridis’s screenplay, with Cameron and Jon Landau also serving as producers, and David Valdes attached as executive producer
A release date for Battle Angel Alita is yet to be announced. For more news about the biggest movies, pick up the new issue of SciFiNow.
