James Cameron is not slowing down his workload, as the filmmaker helps to produce Alita: Battle Angel in time for a July 20, 2018 release. Adapted from the popular manga comic book series written by Yukito Kishiro, this week the project has hired the casting services of Jennifer Connelly. The actress has been picked up to play one of the villains of the piece in an untitled role.
The 46-year old star of Hulk and A Beautiful Mind will link up with Rosa Salazar, Mahershala Ali, Ed Skrein and Inglorious Basterds star Christoph Waltz for the title. Cameron will be working alongside Jon Landau as producer. While Robert Rodriguez of From Dusk till Dawn and Grindhouse fame will be directing.
Jacked James Moving From One Movie To The Next
If he isn't on the lookout for Atlantis or rebooting his beloved Terminator franchise, James Cameron is always on the go. His latest mission is to help bring the classic Japanese magna to life on the big screen next year. Speaking with The Daily Beast, the director explained that his Avatar series remains front of mind. Meaning that he is planning decades ahead in regards to scheduling.
"The thing is, my focus isn’t on Avatar 2," he remarked. "My focus is on Avatar 2, 3, 4, and 5 equally. That’s exactly how I’m approaching it. They’ve all been developed equally. I’ve just finished the script to Avatar 5. I’m now starting the process of active prep. I’ll be working with the actors in the capture volume in August, so I’m booked in production every day between now and then. Our volume is up and running, and everything is designed, and so we’re going full-guns right now. I feel like I’ve been let out of jail, because I’ve been in the writing cave for the last two years. I’m actually enjoying life. I don’t enjoy writing. I wouldn’t wish writing on a dog."
Cameron Preaches Activism Through Film
With Alita: Battle Angel having it's origins in a scrap yard where a cyborg learns to hunt down criminals, this narrative holds a lot of common themes to Terminator. For the filmmaker, he utilizes the underlying story of Avatar to explore concepts of environmental sustainability.
Pressed about the topic post the Trump election win, Cameron argued that he is more pessimistic now in the wake of the result.
"A lot of my work that’s not specifically on the Avatar films—my activism—is around climate, and sustainability, and sustainable land use, and sustainable agriculture, but climate is number one," he said. "Years ago, we sort of spotted the iceberg ahead of us and we called out the order to turn, and we’ve been slowly, slowly, slowly trying to turn this big-ass ship to not hit the iceberg, and then Trump grabbed the tiller and just plunged it right back at the center of the iceberg. So am I worried? Of course. I’m like anyone of good conscience and reasonable intelligence. I think we’re the biggest freakin’ idiot civilization in history right now, and they’ll probably be talking about us 4,000 years from now scratching their heads—like they talk about Atlantis. 'Who are those guys? What did they do to piss off the gods so much that they’re buried under a hundred feet of mud right now?'"
Source: THR, The Daily Beast
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