MUST WATCH: New Trailer For ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL

Hey guys - here's trailer #3 for ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL and it looks stunning! I won't spoil it for you, but be sure to watch it on a big screen with the volume up :-)

I'm first in line for this thing! It's been a long time coming and I'm really looking forward to it.

Here's the movie's storyline:
From visionary filmmakers James Cameron (AVATAR) and Robert Rodriguez (SIN CITY), comes ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL, an epic adventure of hope and empowerment. When Alita (Rosa Salazar) awakens with no memory of who she is in a future world she does not recognize, she is taken in by Ido (Christoph Waltz), a compassionate doctor who realizes that somewhere in this abandoned cyborg shell is the heart and soul of a young woman with an extraordinary past. 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.

Directed by: Robert Rodriguez
Screenplay by: James Cameron and Laeta Kalogridis and Robert Rodriguez
Based on the Graphic Novel ("Manga") Series: "Gunnm" By Yukito Kishiro
Produced by: James Cameron and Jon Landau
Cast: Rosa Salazar, Christoph Waltz, Jennifer Connelly, Mahershala Ali, Ed Skrein, Jackie Earle Haley, Keean Johnson

Connect with Alita: Battle Angel Online:
Visit the Official Site Here: AlitaTickets.co.uk
Like Alita: Battle Angel on FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/AlitaMovieUK

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Follow on Twitter: twitter.com/20CenturyFoxUK
Like on Facebook: www.facebook.com/20thCenturyFoxUK/

ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL launches on February 14, 2019.

**UPDATED** WATCH - ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL Trailer Debut And Live Q&A

**UPDATED: Check out the trailer and QandA below!!

I've been waiting for a LONG time for this movie and finally, we have the first trailer to take in!

Today at 11am Eastern, James Cameron, Robert Rodriguez, Jon Landau and Rosa Salazar will be hosting the trailer on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/AlitaMovie), as well as a question and answer session.

Here's the movie's storyline:
From visionary filmmakers James Cameron (AVATAR) and Robert Rodriguez (SIN CITY), comes ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL, an epic adventure of hope and empowerment. When Alita (Rosa Salazar) awakens with no memory of who she is in a future world she does not recognize, she is taken in by Ido (Christoph Waltz), a compassionate doctor who realizes that somewhere in this abandoned cyborg shell is the heart and soul of a young woman with an extraordinary past. 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.

The movie also stars Jennifer Connelly, Mahershala Ali, Jackie Earle Haley, and Ed Skrein.

Set your calendar so you don't miss it!

ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL opens on December 21.

ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL Sneak Peek At Comic-Con! (Kinda)

It's on! If you're headed to San Diego's Comic-Con you may have an opportunity to see James Cameron's and Robert Rodriguez's ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL!... if you successfully complete a scavenger hunt in time (only 100 tickets up for grabs) to win tickets to the event.

The hunt involves visiting 6 booths at Comic-Con (Loot Crate, Sideshow (Prime 1), Sideshow (Hot Toys), Weta Workshop, Titan Entertainment, Funko) to collect stickers. Note that the event will not be at the Con, but instead at the Regal Theater Horton Plaza (this Friday, July 20).

Ok, it's a sneak peek, but there will be questions and answers with some cast members (Rosa Salazar and Keean Johnson), Rodriguez and producer Jon Landau.

Says Landau: "What makes it special is that it has the trademarks of a typical James Cameron movie. It has a strong female protagonist with universal themes. Alita as a character goes on a journey of self-discovery. She thinks of herself as an insignificant girl. Through her journey, she comes to realize that within her is the ability to make a difference. I can think of no greater universal message today."

The QandA is worth the effort alone, but of course, the sneak peek is sure to blow the roof off of the theater. Wish I was going this year! If you are going and feel up to the challenge - good luck!

ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL is slated for release on December 21, 2018.

Source: THR

Four AVATAR Sequels Confirmed By James Cameron - Releases Start in 2018

Ok I feel much more confident about these estimates. I was never good with the seemingly rushed schedules that were announced with finished scripts in hand, but now things are progressing as I had originally envisaged.

James Cameron has announced at Cinemacon that the AVATAR universe will have four sequels, not 3 and that the releases are slated for 2018, 2020, 2022 and 2023. 

Says Cameron: "We have decided to embark on a truly massive cinematic project, making four epic films, each of which stands alone but together forms a complete saga."

Further Cameron states: "I’ve been working with the top four screenwriters and designers in the world to design the world of Avatar going forward. The environments, new cultures - whatever it takes to bring it to life. From what I’m seeing of the art on the wall, in pure imagination, is just beyond the first film. I’m speechless."

Man I miss Cinemacon! I've got to get back next year. To personally miss announcements like this hurt me on a physical level!

Happy to hear there are 4 sequels now. It explains a lot about why things got delayed and the mindset of the creatives and the studio. Can't wait to start hearing more about the projects. Remember, Cameron already had a massive budget in place for 3 sequels already - add on a fourth and wow! That's a sizable commitment from 20th Century Fox.And commitment from Cameron - he will be one busy man for the next 7-8 years.

James Cameron Selects Robert Rodriguez To Helm BATTLE ANGEL!

I'm actually happy about this move. Don't get me wrong, there is no one I'd rather see direct BATTLE ANGEL than Cameron, but the Rodriguez choice is a little out of left field and edgy. I LIKE IT. Rodriguez has proven he can work with cutting edge tech and 3D (SIN CITY) and besides that, I just really like his approach to filmmaking. EL MARIACHI and DESPERADO were inspired works of art to me.

Rodriguez will have significant help though without a doubt through Cameron and Jon Landau who will both produce. BATTLE ANGEL is a Lightstorm Entertainment property and Laeta Kalogridis contributed to it's adaptation from the manga graphic novels.

I remember one of the discussions I had with Cameron on BATTLE ANGEL right here. He wasn't sure back in 2009 that he'd do it either.

Today's quotes though finally put an end to the long road for the production:

Says Cameron: "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. 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."

Rodriguez follows: "Battle Angel is an incredibly rich and vibrant epic in the tradition of Jim Cameron's spectacular, character-driven films. 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."

I can't imagine this project being shot in any other way than native and digital 3D, so I'm am doubly thrilled to finally see some action take place here. As you may know we've been following BATTLE ANGEL developments for years. Looking forward to more news from the Lightstorm camp on this!

Source: THR

James Cameron Taps THE INFORMATIONIST As His First Post-AVATAR Directing Gig

Interesting. James Cameron and Jon Landau have put their money on a novel from last year entitled THE INFORMATIONIST are are teeing it up for #3 on the production runway. The fourth AVATAR along with BATTLE ANGEL may have just been back-burnered with this announcement. My first inclination on this news is posturing. I think Lightstorm may be posturing their next project after the AVATARs and are even dangling the end of AVATAR at 3 to Fox. This type of thing happens ALL the time so it wouldn't surprise me if my first thought was right.

That said, the official PR says quite clearly that "The Informationist will be a project for Cameron after he completes work on the second and third AVATAR films..." so do with that as you will. I'll jingle some bells and talk to some of my "people close to the situation".

Here's the official press release:

LOS ANGELES, (October 23, 2012) – Lightstorm Entertainment has acquired motion picture rights to the acclaimed 2011 novel The Informationist by Taylor Stevens, as vehicle for James Cameron to direct for 20th Century Fox Film. The Informationist will be a project for Cameron after he completes work on the second and third “Avatar” films, which are currently in pre-production.

Published in October 2011, Stevens’ tale centers on Vanessa “Michael” Munroe, an information specialist, whose work is in-demand by corporations, heads of state, private clients, and anyone else who can pay for her unique brand of expertise. When a Texas oil billionaire hires her to find his daughter who vanished in Africa four years ago. Munroe finds herself back in the lands of her childhood. Betrayed, cut off from civilization, and left for dead, she must come face-to-face with the past that she’s tried for so long to forget.

Cameron will produce with Lightstorm partner, Jon Landau. The producers expect to hire a writer to adapt the novel shortly.

Jim Cameron stated: “Taylor Stevens’ Vanessa Michael Munroe is an intriguing and compelling heroine with an agile mind and a thirst for adventure. Equally fascinating for me is her emotional life and her unexpected love story. I’m looking forwarding to bringing Vanessa and her world to the big screen.”

Added Landau: “This was an opportunity to continue our relationship with Fox and Jim Gianopulos beyond the ‘Avatar’ films. We were drawn to this book because of the terrific, compelling narrative and the character, who typifies the strong female protagonists that have inhabited Jim’s work – in this case Vanessa Munroe is essentially a mix of Lisbeth Salander and Jason Bourne.”

A second “Vanessa Michael Munroe” novel, The Innocent, was published earlier this year.

Author Taylor Stevens has a background every bit as intriguing as her heroine’s. Born in New York State, and into the Children of God, an apocalyptic religious cult spun from the Jesus Movement of the ’60s, Stevens was raised in communes across the globe. Separated from her family at age twelve and denied an education beyond sixth grade, she lived on three continents and in a dozen countries before reaching fourteen. In place of schooling, the majority of her adolescence was spent begging on city streets at the behest of cult leaders, or as a worker bee child, caring for the many younger commune children, washing laundry and cooking meals for hundreds at a time. In her twenties, Stevens broke free in order to follow hope and a vague idea of what possibilities lay beyond. She now lives in Texas, and juggles full-time writing with full-time motherhood.

Sounds extremely inviting to me. I'll have to read the book as I hadn't heard of it until just now. It certainly sounds like something in Cameron's wheelhouse and I love that it has franchise potential written all over it. AND, of course, that it's going to be shot in native 3D on Cameron | Pace equipment!!

And if you didn't read the last paragraph of the press release - please do so. The author's own life sounds like a movie in the making!

James Cameron: AVATAR 4 Will Be A Prequel - Jon Landau: BATTLE ANGEL Still Coming!

Some HUGE news out of the Lightstorm Entertainment camp today from it's two biggest players: Director James Cameron and producer Jon Landau.

First let's hear from Cameron as he lets us know that AVATAR 4 will actually be a prequel rather than following on the tails of AVATAR 3!

Here's Cameron's rationale: "Because when we drop in, even in the first film in AVATAR 1, as it will be known in the future, we’re dropping into a process that’s 35 years into a whole colonization. That will complete an arc and if that leads into more, we’ll start - not imitating STAR WARS, but it’s a logical thing to do because we’ll have completed the thematic arc by the end of (AVATAR 3). The only thing left to do is go back to see what it was like on those first expeditions and create some new characters that then become legacy characters in later films. It’s a plan."

"I have an idea for a fourth. I haven’t really put pen to paper on it, but basically it goes back to the early expeditions of Pandora, and kind of what went wrong with the humans and the Na’vi and what that was like to be an explorer and living in that world."

"We’ve spent two years refining the whole pipeline. It was a hideously complex process to make that film and a lot has been said about that, but we don’t want it to be done in the same prototypical way as the first one, we want it to be a much smoother workflow just for creativity reasons."

And an obvious elbow to the ribs of Peter Jackson with this quote:
"You know, Peter Jackson had it easy, he already had the books. He had the books. Now if I had a time machine I could go forward and watch the movies and then come back, but I don’t!"

Simply love that there is a plan coming together at long last for these movies and it definitely seems to hold water why he is doing it.

Now here's what Jon Landau had to say about BATTLE ANGEL:

"I am sure you will get to see BATTLE ANGEL. It is one of my favorite stories, a great story about a young woman’s journey to self-discovery. It is a film that begs the question: 'What does it mean to be human? Are you human if you have a heart, a brain or a soul?'  I look forward to giving the audience the film.

Who we want to put in the lead role today and who we want to put in the lead role when the time comes, it can be two totally different people who would be right for the role. Now we focus on AVATAR for the next four or five years. It will hopefully be right after that."

YES!!! I am unbelievably happy that BATTLE ANGEL is moving forward after AVATAR 2, 3 and 4. For all of our BATTLE ANGEL coverage, click here. I believe it's time to start ramping up my embedded sources for these upcoming AVATAR movies - stay tuned!

Source: MovieZone via Collider

Exclusive Info: Hold Your Breath - THE DIVE Will Be Up Next!!

Jim here. According to one of my sources it is looking like a foregone conclusion that THE DIVE will be Jim Cameron's next directorial project. We were speculating that there would be time and sufficient will to get AVATAR 2 out there as his next movie, but obviously that is going to be a very complex film and the estimate for its release is in the 3.5 years range.

Cameron is also producing SANCTUM.

So what about THE DIVE? It will be an exciting piece of work. I have learned that a particular company (I am not naming names at this point) has secured business to produce set pieces for the movie using what sounds to be a 3D prototype system. How is that done? You create a 3D model with a CAD program, feed the information into this machine and it spits out a prototype quality item - great for movie props!

Further, it seems Jon Landau is the man pulling the trigger on these deals - so it IS happening right now.

THE DIVE is based on a true story of a Cuban free diver Francisco "Pipin" Ferreras and his love affair with a French woman - Audrey Mestre. Mestre perishes while in competition after being trained by her lover.

THE DIVE is going to be a spectacular movie! It should be the pinnacle of everything that Cameron has achieved with underwater work in his career because now he is using 3D. Yes, THE ABYSS was a staggering accomplishment, but I look for realism, elegance and of course that relationship between Pipin and Audrey to be front and center.

Cameron told me that THE DIVE would most likely be the next movie - this information underscores it! We also have photos from 2003 that Cameron took while planning for the movie.

Jon Landau On James Cameron's Next Project (Showest 2010)

Michael here. Jon Landau made a surprise appearance at the ShoWest press conference, and Jim asked him whether he might have time to do a project like The Dive before making Avatar 2.

Watch below:



So it looks like Cameron and Landau's next project will depend on how quickly a great script for Avatar 2 comes in. I love hearing that to make Avatar 2, they would have to be confident that it would be "as good or better" than the first. In any case, we should know their next project within six months.

Alita: Battle Angel Will Include Motorball!

Michael here. MTV has been on quite a roll with their news on James Cameron's adaptation of Yukito Kishiro's Battle Angel Alita. First they had Jon Landau revealing that "Alita" would follow Avatar 2, and that he would like to title it Alita: Battle Angel. Now Landau confirms talk from long ago that the movie will include the sport of Motorball:

From MTV:

“We’re trying to pick what is the best story to tell,” explained Landau, who has served as Cameron’s producer on both “Avatar” and “Titanic."

“It’s sort of like when you do a biopic; you can’t really do a biopic that goes from cradle to grave," he said. "You have to pick out what is the important section in that person’s life, to tell that story.”

And in their “biopic” on the rescued robotic warrior Alita, Cameron and Landau plan to focus on the earlier part of her life.

“I think we’ll tend to err on the earlier side, because it is the more fascinating side where Alita’s lost her memory and she doesn’t know where she comes from,” he explained. “And it’s when she discovers where she comes from, she’s terrified of it and doesn’t believe that that’s who she really is.”

Landau is also partial to that period in Alita’s life because it will give him the chance to see his favorite element on the big-screen.

“If people are familiar with the series at all, there’s something they call Motorball,” Landau said of the one aspect of “Alita” that he’s most eager to see Cameron capture. “That is something that Jim has always been dynamically excited about. It’s racing on a super track, with characters that are built and created in the cyborg world to race against each other in an arena.”

“It’s almost like a gladiator match meets an Indy 500 race,” Landau added. “[Their mode of battle] depends on who they are. It depends how they’ve been modified as cyborgs; they’re not in cars — it’s their physical being that is out there. Some of them are on roller skates — and Alita participates in this, and she’s on roller blades, while other people might have different devices. It’s a wonderful, rich world to design and develop.”

Landau's comments jive with pre-Avatar quotes from Cameron that said that "Alita" would pull the Motorball story forward into the Alita, Hugo, and Ido story. Sounds like they are sticking to their plans. The Motorball arc of the original Battle Angel series has the most completely insane action imaginable, and seeing it given the big budget S3D treatment will be amazing.

"Battle Angel" Retitled, and Coming After Avatar 2?

Michael here. This is interesting. I had the same thought myself regarding the T and A titles, and how Cameron might have to change the name to "Alita" to fit the pattern. Well, it looks like Jon Landau is thinking along similar lines, suggesting that the film be called Alita: Battle Angel.

From MTV: (thanks m4st4 for the heads up!)

“I’m telling people that we have to call it ‘Alita: Battle Angel,’ because Jim only does T&A movies,” grinned Landau, listing the examples. “’Titanic,’ ‘Aliens,’ ‘Terminator,’ ‘Abyss,’ ‘True Lies,’ ‘Avatar.’”

“So, we can’t call it ‘Battle Angel’,” he insisted. “We have to call it ‘Alita: Battle Angel.’”

And it seems that Alita: Battle Angel may go right after Avatar 2:

[‘Battle Angel’] is something that Jim is very, very passionate about. It was actually brought to our attention by another filmmaker, Guillermo del Toro; Guillermo saw those things in the property that he thought would really relate to Jim, and Jim responded to it immediately.”

Although Landau was quick to point out that Cameron plans to shoot an “Avatar” sequel first, he re-affirmed the filmmaker’s intentions to adapt Yukito Kishiro’s manga classic after that.

Sounds good to me! I'm a ravenous fan of the Battle Angel Alita (Gunnm in Japan) graphic novels, and I hope Cameron makes a stunning series of films out of them as soon as he can.

Read Landau's comments on their plans for Alita: Battle Angel below to get even more excited:

“We really wanted to take our time in developing a large arc-ing story that really encompasses the whole world,” remembered Landau. “We were very close to doing that movie before we did ‘Avatar,’ and I think you’ll see that resurface. That’s a story in our minds about: What does it mean to be human? What does it mean to fall in love? Are you human if you have a heart? Are you human if you have a mind? Or are you human if you just have a body? It’s a journey of self-discovery for a young girl.”

From everything Cameron and Landau have said, it is clear they understand what makes Battle Angel Alita so great. I absolutely can't wait to see the world and characters come to life on screen!