Alita: Battle Angel
James Cameron spent years developing theAlita : Battle Angelmovie - but why did n’t he direct it ? Published from 1990 to 1995 in magazine form , theBattle Angel Alitamanga was create by Yukito Kishiro and remains a popular entryway in the Nipponese cyberpunk literary genre . determine in a post - apocalyptical future tense , the serial publication revolves around an amnesiac female bionic woman discovered in a junkyard by Dr. Ido , a benevolent cybernetics specialist who rebuilds her and names her Alita . Realizing she possess incredible campaign abilities , Alita sets out to learn the verity about her past , set her on the track to a encounter with the diabolical wizardry Desty Nova .
It did n’t take long for Hollywood to recognize the cinematic potential of Kishiro ’s source material . After the attribute was brought to his attention by Guillermo del Toro , Cameron and 20th Century Fox buy theBattle Angel Alitadomain name in 2000 . However , the hot - legal action moving-picture show did n’t start production until October 2016 , almost exactly one year after Robert Rodriguez replace Cameron as the picture ’s director . ab initio schedule for the summer of 2018,Alita : struggle Angelwas by and by delayed to the play along December to give Rodriguez more clip to finalize its essence , then again to February 2019 at Cameron ’s behest(who finger it had a good pellet at success there ) . It would go on to become a modest decisive and commercial-grade striking , but has yet to get a subsequence despite the on-going fan cause .
bear on : Alita : Battle Angel Should Get A Sequel On Disney+ ( As A TV Series )
Despite being credited as a co - author and producer on the ruined film , Cameron ’s busy schedule prevented him from directingAlita : Battle Angel . The filmmaker had originally project to undertake the labor as his feature reexamination toTitanicin the early 2000s , but push it back in 2004 after make up one’s mind to make his documentaryAliens of the Deepfirst . He delayed it again to focalise on directingAvatar(back when it was calledProject 880 ) in 2005 , but with the intention of eventually helmingAlitain the time to come . Everything shift after that , withAvatargoing on to breakTitanic ’s global box office record andusher in an raw earned run average for blockbusters in the 2010s .
Cameron did n’t immediately abuse forth fromAlitain the backwash ofAvatar ’s success . Just a few months after the motion-picture show open , his longtime manufacturer Jon Landau sustain the task was still moving forward , with writer Laeta Kalogridis ( then know for working on Oliver Stone’sAlexanderand theBionic WomanTV show reboot ) contributing to the handwriting . Still , it soon became obvious Cameron was more passionate about make theAvatarsequels thanAlita , with the enfranchisement ’s environmental melodic theme verbalise to his interests . He re - confirmed his intention to helmAlitaafter the twoAvatarsequels were done in 2011 , but had to postpone it again as he continued to expand the tale for hisAvatartrilogy ( eventually turning his three - part arc into five movies ) .
Recognizing the project would only continue to be confirm whether he abide onboard as director , Cameron harmonise to admit Rodriguez to helmAlita : Battle Angelso long as he could condense Cameron and Kalogridis ' premature screenplay work with Cameron ’s 600 pages of notes into a shooting script . speak toYahoo ! Moviesin 2018 , Rodriguez joke there"were likely 400 more"pages of tone Cameron did n’t give him , but also said they"helped me collapse the book . “Interestingly , the last moving picture trifle out as a crossbreed of the two director ' previous work , combine Cameron ’s interestingness in technology that allows humanity to overstep their deadly forms with Rodriguez ’s storytelling focal point on class remainder , his retentive runway record of spue Latinx lead , and knack for craft tight - paced action scenes with eye - pop visuals .
In the conclusion , Alitaarguably benefited from all the delays and Cameron stepping off . It not only gave photorealistic CGI and motion - seizure time to catch up to where Rodriguez needed them to be to realise his imaginativeness , it also allowed the latter to step in and incorporate elements ( like the diverse cast ) that Cameron in all likelihood would n’t have include in his version of the flick . As for the futurity , it ’s ill-defined ifAlitawill ever getthe subsequence tease in its last scene(where Edward Norton cameos as Nova ) . Even with the demand from fan , there ’s not a short ton of financial inducement for Disney to makeAlita 2 , now that it own Fox ’s film and television firebrand . The first movie cover its $ 170 million budget and then some , but was nowhere near as lucrative as Disney holding like the MCU or Star Wars . Still , if there ’s one thingAlitafans have learned , it ’s to be patient when it comes to big screenland adaptation .
NEXT : Avatar 2 : Everything the Set Photos Reveal About James Cameron ’s subsequence
