With Alita: Battle Angel, director Robert Rodriguez (Spy Kids, Sin City) brings producer James Cameron’s long-gestating passion project to life almost two decades after the Avatar helmer first announced his plans to adapt Yukito Kishiro’s manga series.
Ahead of the film’s UK release this Wednesday, Sarah Bradbury got the opportunity to sit down with Rodriguez to discuss how he came to be involved with the project, working with James Cameron, the casting of Rosa Salazar as Alita and Christoph Waltz as Dr. Dyson Ido, and the timeliness of the movie’s themes. Watch the interview here..
SEE ALSO: Check out our exclusive interviews with Rosa Salazar and Christoph Waltz
SEE ALSO: Read our review of Alita: Battle Angel here
Visionary filmmakers James Cameron (AVATAR) and Robert Rodriguez (SIN CITY) create a groundbreaking new heroine in ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL, an action-packed story of hope, love and empowerment. 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 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. Everything is new to Alita, every experience a first. As she learns to navigate her new life and the treacherous streets of Iron City, Ido tries to shield Alita from her mysterious past while her street-smart new friend, Hugo (Keean Johnson), offers instead to help trigger her memories. A growing affection develops between the two until deadly forces come after Alita and threaten her newfound relationships. It is then that Alita discovers she has extraordinary fighting abilities that could be used to save the friends and family she’s grown to love. Determined to uncover the truth behind her origin, Alita sets out on a journey that will lead her to take on the injustices of this dark, corrupt world, and discover that one young woman can change the world in which she lives.
Alita: Battle Angel is set for release on February 6th in the UK and February 14th in the U.S. and features a cast that includes Rosa Salazar (Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials), Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained), Michelle Rodriguez (The Fate of the Furious), Keean Johnson (Nashville), Jackie Earle Haley (Preacher), Jennifer Connelly (American Pastoral), Ed Skrein (Deadpool), Eiza Gonzalez (From Dusk Till Dawn), Mahershala Ali (Luke Cage), Lana Condor (X-Men: Apocalypse) and Jorge Lendeborg Jr. (Spider-Man: Homecoming).
