Robert Rodriguez Up For Alita Sequel

Alita: Battle Angel spent years and years in development, and when then-director James Cameron opted to focus on his Avatar sequels, it seemed like a possibility of the manga adaptation had been extinguished altogether. But Robert Rodriguez took the metallic corpse of a film, reworked the script, and shepherded it to the big screen, resulting in the finished product, which hit theaters earlier this year to a mostly positive reaction.

Critics themselves were mostly positive, if a little bit lukewarm, but a lot of anime and manga fans really took this adaptation to heart. For a lot of us who grew up with the medium, it seemed to finally nail what Hollywood has failed to do when it comes to these kinds of adaptations. It also set the groundwork for a potential franchise…but is Rodriguez down to return?

“Oh yeah!” Rodriguez told Nerd Reactor. “I would love to come back and do that one. It was so fun. Working with Jim’s great, I thought Rosa was incredible, and the effects were just amazing, To think they would even be better by then for the sequel because they just keep evolving. Those guys at WETA are just at the top of their game. And just as a writing process, even if there isn’t a sequel, I got to see how Jim crafts his movies and stories. He outlines out several pictures just to let you know what to include in the first one and what not to include and what’s not necessary. There are so many mangas and so many places we can go that it would be pretty easy to come up with a second step.”

RELATED – Alita: Battle Angel To Finish Run North Of $400 Million

This comes as no surprise. In an exclusive interview with us back in February, Rodriguez shared how his collaboration with Cameron had pushed him beyond his normal go-to filmmaking techniques.

“Instinctually it felt like I shouldn’t just do what I normally do. The script was written so clearly for him to direct, and I can see it so clearly. I really wanted to make it feel like the lost Jim Cameron movie than go off and just do my process. I didn’t even know what my process even meant until he told me something about sci-fi and fantasy genres in general and the way he sees it.”

“I tend to be very whimsical with my stuff. Because I started as a cartoonist. He started as an illustrator. That’s different. That’s more realistic. Cartoony is more whimsical, kinda fun like Spy Kids or El Mariachi or Desperado. A guy can fire a missile from a guitar case, and I don’t think the audience really needs to know how it works. I think they can just buy into the dream logic of it. But that wouldn’t fly with Jim. He’s much more grounded and real. He would ask, ‘How does that work? I don’t understand the engineering. I wouldn’t work without blowing up in the guy’s face. I don’t buy it. Pulls me out of the movie.'”

“So I asked him how he’d approach a movie like this. He said science fiction and fantasy, especially for him, has to be really grounded, otherwise you don’t buy the fantasy. If it’s not utterly believable, you don’t believe it.”

But did the box office justify a sequel? It broke $400 million worldwide in spite of the lukewarm U.S. reception, so maybe there is a way they can make it work if they really cater to the overseas audiences. But with Fox now being a part of Disney, that’s all in the House of Mouse’s court.

Would you like to see an Alita: Battle Angel sequel? Let us know your thoughts down below!

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SOURCE: Nerd Reactor

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