The adaptation of manga title Battle Angel Alita has spent more than 15 years on James Cameron’s to-do list. But now, with his focus firmly on the Avatar universe, he’s handing off the job of directing it to Robert Rodriguez, with the** Sin City** man entering negotiations to work on the film for Fox{
What will now be called **Alita: Battle Angel **is based on Yukito Kishiro's nine-volume manga (known as "Gun/Dream" in Japan): the story of an amnesiac female cyborg who becomes a bounty hunter, after being rescued from the rubbish dump and rebuilt by a professor of cybernetics. There was a short-lived stab at an anime in 1993, and the Cameron version has been lurking in development long enough for him to produce test reels and switch up the technology, and we can assume fellow digital/green screen fan Rodriguez will be bringing all of his technical filmmaking know-how to the project while Cameron produces and advises alongside Lightstorm Entertainment partner Jon Landau. Regular Cameron collaborator Laeta Kalogridis reportedly wrote the most recent version of the script, but there’s no information on whether Rodriguez will take on a draft himself or hire his own writer.
"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," says Cameron in a statement carried by The Hollywood Reporter. "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."
“Battle Angel is an incredibly rich and vibrant epic in the tradition of Jim Cameron's spectacular, character-driven films,” adds Rodriguez. 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." No timetable was set for the potential film, but we’re assuming that with the main job off his mind, Cameron will be hoping to finally get this thing made in the next couple of years.