Development Battle Angel Alita, an early-1990s
Japanese cyberpunk manga series written by
Yukito Kishiro, was originally brought to
James Cameron's attention by filmmaker
Guillermo del Toro, and Cameron immediately became enamored with the concept. The
domain name "battleangelalita.com" was registered to James Cameron by
20th Century Fox around June 2000. Fox also registered the "battleangelmovie.com" domain. In April 2003, it was reported by Moviehole that Cameron had confirmed he would direct a
Battle Angel film. Cameron confirmed that a script for the film was in production during an interview on the
Tokudane! program on
Fuji TV on May 4, 2003. It was originally scheduled to be his next production after the TV series
Dark Angel, which was influenced by
Battle Angel Alita. It was later scheduled to be his next film after
Aliens of the Deep in January 2005. In June 2005,
The Hollywood Reporter claimed that the film was being delayed while Cameron developed a film known as
Project 880, which would later be renamed
Avatar.
Entertainment Weekly ran an interview in February 2006 in which Cameron stated that his deal with 20th Century Fox was that he produce both films. The article also claimed that
Battle Angel was slated to be released in September 2009. In May 2008, Cameron indicated he would be working on a film titled
The Dive, a biography of
freedivers Francisco Ferreras and
Audrey Mestre, thus delaying the film again. That July, at
San Diego Comic-Con, he reiterated that he was still committed to making the film. In December 2009, Cameron commented during an interview with
MTV News that a script for
Battle Angel had been completed. In February 2010, producer
Jon Landau commented that he was trying to convince Cameron to change the title from the manga to
Alita: Battle Angel for the film. Landau also revealed that screenwriter
Laeta Kalogridis had worked on writing the film. He still stated that he did not intend to abandon the film, stating that he loved the project too much to hand it off to another director, stating that "
Battle Angel is not going to happen for a few years." According to Cameron, his reason for producing
Avatar first is because he believes that the film can raise public awareness of the need for
environmental protection. , the director of the film During an interview with
Alfonso Cuarón in July 2013, Cameron set 2017 as the date at which production on the film would begin. In October 2015,
The Hollywood Reporter reported that director
Robert Rodriguez was in negotiations to direct the film, now titled
Alita: Battle Angel, and Cameron would be attached as producer alongside Jon Landau. Rodriguez had been brought in by Cameron to condense and combine Cameron's 186-page screenplay and some 600 pages of notes into what could be the shooting script. Satisfied by Rodriguez's work on the shooting script, Cameron offered him the directing job. In April 2016,
The Hollywood Reporter reported that 20th Century Fox had not yet
greenlit the film, as they were attempting to reduce the budget to something below $175–$200 million. The article also announced that Rodriguez had been signed as director.
Pre-production With James Cameron as potential director, the film was to be produced with the same mix of
live-action and
computer-generated imagery that Cameron used in
Avatar. In May 2006,
Variety reported that Cameron had spent the past ten months developing technology to produce the film. In October 2018, Mark Goerner, a
digital artist who had worked on the film for a year and a half, commented that pre-production work on the film was mostly finished. In a February 2019 interview, Cameron revealed that he set the floating city of Zalem in
Panama, He explained that the city Zalem is not floating, but hanging from a
space elevator, which would only work physically near the
equator. As a result of the new location, Iron City was designed with Spanish signage and Latin American architecture.
Casting An April 2016 article in
The Hollywood Reporter reported that
Maika Monroe,
Rosa Salazar, and
Zendaya were among the final actresses being considered to take the role of Alita in the film, with a decision due within a few weeks. In August 2016, it was reported that
Christoph Waltz was in negotiations to play Dr. Dyson Ido, the equivalent of Daisuke Ido from the original manga. On September 14, 2016, it was announced that
Jackie Earle Haley had been cast as a
cyborg villain. On September 21, 2016,
Variety reported that
Ed Skrein was in talks for a role in the film;
The Hollywood Reporter later confirmed that he had been cast as the antagonist Zapan. On September 30, 2016,
Keean Johnson was reported to have been cast in the film to play Hugo, Alita's love interest, who later becomes the reason for her to play a gladiator-style game called Motorball. The studio also considered
Avan Jogia,
Douglas Booth,
Jack Lowden, and Noah Silver for the role, but decided on Johnson because they were looking for someone more "ethnically ambiguous." In an interview following his
Best Supporting Actor win at the
89th Academy Awards, Ali revealed that he would play two roles in the film, although he did not elaborate on the nature of the second role. On October 5, 2016, it was reported that
Eiza González had joined the film. González is one of the leads in Rodriguez's television series
From Dusk till Dawn: The Series.
Jorge Lendeborg Jr. was announced for a role in the film on October 7, 2016. He would play Hugo's friend.
Lana Condor was reported to have joined the cast on October 11, 2016, portraying the orphaned teen Koyomi. On October 18, 2016, Leonard Wu was cast as the cyborg Kinuba.
Marko Zaror joined the cast as the cyborg Ajakutty in December 2016. On February 7, 2017,
Jennifer Connelly joined the film in an unknown villainous role.
Michelle Rodriguez was retroactively announced for a role on February 22, 2017, after the film had completed shooting.
Filming The film began shooting at
Robert Rodriguez's
Troublemaker Studios in
Austin, Texas on October 17, 2016, and concluded on February 9, 2017. In late January 2017, a casting call went out looking for
rocker,
punk, or
emo extras to film scenes in Austin on the nights of February 3, 6 and 7, 2017. Salazar went through "five months of exhaustive martial arts training" to prepare for the action sequences in the film, learning
Eagle Claw Kung Fu,
Muay Thai, and staff work. James Cameron also decided that the film would pay homage to
Bruce Lee, seen through Alita's punching technique during a scene where she practises in front of a mirror.
Visual effects The visual effects were provided by
Weta Digital,
DNEG and
Framestore and supervised by Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, Nick Epstein, Raymond Chen and Nigel Denton-Howes. Weta Digital was the main visual effect company for the Alita digital puppet, which required the company to redesign its motion capture methods to motion capture all the subtleties and complexities of Salazar's performance. ==Music==