Movies - TV
Robert Rodriguez Went The Extra Mile To Get His Alita: Battle Angel Director Gig
By LYVIE SCOTT
When James Cameron was first introduced to the cyberpunk manga "Gunnm” in 1999, the technology that he wanted to use to adapt it into film did not exist at the time. His script was also 186 pages with 600 pages of notes, so if the project was to ever move forward, Cameron needed a director he could trust to edit it and that director turned out to be Robert Rodriguez.
Cameron and Rodriguez had known each other for years, and had even tried to collaborate twice in the past. In an interview, Rodriguez recalled how Cameron approached him with the project that would now be called “Alita: Battle Angel,” saying to him, “[I]f you fix the script for me, you can direct."
Rodriguez spent a month of his own time fixing the script, and went back to Cameron, saying to him, “[H]ere you go, free of charge. And he said: all right, it's yours." So after spending nearly 20 years in development, the Rodriguez-directed and Cameron-produced “Alita: Battle Angel” was finally released in 2019 and went on to gain moderate success and a loyal fandom.