James Cameron and Robert Rodriguez’s long-awaited epic sci-fi thriller opens in theaters February 14.
With yesterday’s release of the Alita: Battle Angel “Mirror Punch” clip, we’re beginning to glean a bit more about the central figure, a rescued cyborg with the heart and soul of a young woman, in James Cameron and Robert Rodriguez’s long-awaited epic sci-fi adventure, which opens in theatres worldwide February 14. The clip shows the young warrior, alone in her bedroom, struggling to make sense of her own faint memories as she begins to understand and harness her new physical powers. Taken along with what we’ve learned from the film’s previous trailers, could Alita’s complete awakening to her own past be triggered by how she explores and takes control of her new cybernetic body?
With masterful performance capture animation and precise blending of photorealistic CG characters with live-action, Weta Digital vividly brings to life Cameron and Rodriguez’s big-budget adaptation of Yukito Kishiro’s expansive manga series, GUNNM. Check out the clip below, as well as a dozen new character posters!
Alita: Battle Angel is set several centuries in the future. The abandoned Alita (Rosa Salazar) is found in the scrapyard of Iron City by Ido (Christoph Waltz), a compassionate cyber-doctor who realizes that within this abandoned cyborg shell is the essence of a young woman with an extraordinary past. 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 history while her street-smart new friend Hugo (Keean Johnson) offers instead to help trigger her memories. But it is only when the deadly and corrupt forces that run the city come after Alita that she discovers a clue to her past - she has unique fighting abilities that those in power will stop at nothing to control. If she can stay out of their grasp, she could be the key to saving her friends, her family and the world she's grown to love.
In what could become the first installment of Cameron’s next big franchise, Alita: Battle Angel is directed by Rodriguez from a screenplay he wrote with Cameron and Laeta Kalogridis. Cameron and Jon Landau are producing. The film has been on Cameron’s radar for almost two decades – he registered a domain in the film’s name in 2000 and in 2003, confirmed he’d be directing from a script that was in production. The project went through years of development, ultimately set aside while Cameron made Avatar (2009) and then delayed again with the announcement of two additional Avatar films. In 2015, Rodriguez was reported to be reworking the script and Cameron’s notes – the following year, Fox announced a July 20, 2018 release date with Rodriguez directing and Cameron, along with Landau, producing.
Dan Sarto is Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network.
