ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL Producer Says Talks Are Still Ongoing for the Sequel
Alita: Battle Angel fans really want to see a sequel to the James Cameron-produced Robert Rodriguez-directed cyberpunk film. There has been a lot of optimistic talk about that sequel happening in recent years and according to producer Jon Landau, those talks are still ongoing.
Landau recently offered an update on the project during an interview with ScreenRant where he confirmed discussions about the sequel were still happening behind the scenes. He said:
"I'm very proud of that film, and we were doing it concurrently with Avatar. I was down with Robert on the set doing all that, and Jim was involved too and saw it. It came on HBO one night, and Jim watched it and called me after he watched it. He said, "Jon, Alita was on, I just decided to watch it. It's a good movie." (laughs) And it is! So, I want to be able to definitely do more in that world.”
During a previous interview with Rodriguez he said: "Yeah, Jim [Cameron] and I always talk about how we'd love to do another Alita. That studio [20th Century] was bought by another studio [Disney]. They're starting to make movies now. But that for a while 20th Century wasn't making any of their movies. I think now you're seeing a few rolling out. We would love to."
Landau previously talked about the sequel saying: "We're very excited about that prospect. Alita is a movie that even now having recently like re-watched it for what we had, we're really proud of that movie. And we think that there are more stories to tell with her character and that's why we want to go back to it."
The producer also explained that when they do make the movie, they will utilize the filmmaking technology that was created to help bring Avatar 2: The Way of Water to life: “I think what we’ve learned from Avatar is how much more facial nuance and subtlety that we can get into characters that we want to be emotional and emote that are humanoid. Alita would not have been possible, but for what we did on Avatar. Avatar: Way of Water would not be what it is but what we did for Alita. And now let’s put that back and give it back to Alita. We’re talking to Robert and talking to Rosa and all is good.”
The film is based on the manga series Gunnm by Yukito Kishiro. The story is set several centuries in the future, the abandoned Alita is found in the scrapyard of Iron City by Ido, a compassionate cyber-doctor who takes the unconscious cyborg Alita to his clinic. When Alita awakens, she has no memory of who she is, nor does she have any recognition of the world she finds herself in. As Alita learns to navigate her new life and the treacherous streets of Iron City, Ido tries to shield her from her mysterious past.
Cameron and Rodgriguez initially planned out a trilogy of films, and Cameron has written over a thousand pages of notes that would cover that entire story. Fans really want to see that story brought to life. The hope is that we will get more than one sequel, as Cameron has said in the past that they were planning multiple sequels.
There’s been a lot of talk about this movie, hopefully, we actually get to see the creative team start taking action on it.