Alita: Battle Angel may not have been a box office smash or a critical darling, but it has a devoted following and is clearly a labour of love for director James Cameron.
Fans should take solace in the knowledge that filmmaker Robert Rodriguez and producer James Cameron both want a sequel to be made, and they’ve outlined a time frame for when they can work on making it a reality.
“Jim and I talked about it recently,” Rodriguez told The Hollywood Reporter, “and we’re still very interested. I told him, ‘Let me deliver [The Book of Boba Fett] and then let’s figure out a pitch.'”
At one point or another in the lengthy conversation, Rodriguez said that The Mandalorian showrunner Jon Favreau viewed Alita and decided to get him on board. This is a full-circle event because it was George Lucas who initially introduced Rodriguez to high-tech filmmaking.
A departure from Rodriguez’s normal niche material, The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett has him working with one of the world’s most important intellectual assets. However, you shouldn’t expect him to start working on every big-budget film.
“I usually avoid premier properties,” he explained, “you’ll never be able to please everybody, it’s a losing game.I’d rather go do something I’ve created so nobody can say, ‘Hey, that’s wrong because…’ I created it, so it can be anything I want it to be. I love that freedom.”
