James Cameron to Direct BATTLE ANGEL after AVATAR Sequels
One movie adaptation that we've all been itching to see is James Cameron's feature film version of Battle Angel. This is a project he's been talking about doing forever, and it's still going to be several years before we see it happen. But! We will see it happen... eventually. In a recent interview with MTV the filmmaker discussed the project saying, that at one point, it was a coin toss between Avatar and Battle Angel on what his next film would be. He obviously went with Avatar. Battle Angel is still coming though! We're going to have to wait until he's finished with his Avatar sequels, which is going to be a hell of a long time.
Here's what he had to say about why he went with Avatar,
I see the good the Avatar franchise can do in terms of keeping a world audience cognizant of our relationship with nature, but doing it in an entertainment context. Ultimately I think there's more good to be done there than with Battle Angel. Battle Angel is just a great, kick ass story.
So he decided to make the movie with the environmental message over a kick-ass story. Well, the movie did make over $2 billion dollars, so I guess he made the right choice. When asked if he would hand over Battle Angel to another director he said,
It would have to be pried out of my cold dead fingers. But on the other hand, I don't want to take it to my grave either. [We want to see it] at some point, yeah.
Hell yeah we want to see it! I'd personally rather see that than two more Avatar movies. In a previous interview with the director last year, here's what he had to say about the film,
I’m obviously going to be pretty busy for the next five years [with Avatar 2 and 3]. And so I had to consider, do I hand this project off to another director? And then I thought, ‘No, I love it too much.’…It’s such a rich world. What I’m going to do is take the spine story and use elements from the first four books. So, the Motorball from books three and four, and parts of the story of one and two will all be in the movie.
So he actually did think of handing it off to another director at one point. It looks like he'll be doing it himself as soon as he gets the chance.
The story follows an amnesiac cyborg named Alita who ends up becoming a bounty hunter. It's based on a nine-volume-long series that tells the stories of the character's attempts to rediscover her past, and the people she meets along the way. You can read much more about Cameron's plans for the film here.
What movie would you rather see next from Cameron? Battle Angel or Avatar 2?