Alita: Battle Angel (2019)
- Before Rosa Salazar was cast, several major A-list stars turned down the lead role because they felt the script was too risky.
- Eagle-eyed viewers have noticed a hidden easter egg referencing Robert Rodriguez's previous film in the background of the opening scene.
- The incredible score for Alita: Battle Angel was composed in just a few weeks after the original composer dropped out.
Alita: Battle Angel is a 2019 American cyberpunk action film directed by Robert Rodriguez, produced by James Cameron, based on Yukito Kishiro's manga series. Rosa Salazar stars, through performance capture, as Alita, a deactivated cyborg discovered in a scrapyard beneath the floating city of Zalem by Dr. Dyson Ido, played by Christoph Waltz, who rebuilds her with a new body.
Alita awakens with no memory of her past but discovers she possesses extraordinary combat abilities linked to a lost martial art called Panzer Kunst. As she explores the gritty Iron City and falls in love with a street-smart young man named Hugo, Alita uncovers her true identity as a legendary warrior from a centuries-old conflict. James Cameron had been developing the adaptation for nearly two decades before passing the directorial reins to Rodriguez, and the resulting film showcased groundbreaking visual effects โ Alita's photorealistic face, with enlarged anime-inspired eyes rendered through performance capture of Salazar's expressions, was the most technically complex digital human face created for film at that time.
The Motorball gladiatorial sequence was a spectacular showcase of the film's kinetic action choreography. Alita earned $405 million worldwide on a $170 million budget, falling short of the sequel-justifying return Cameron and Rodriguez had hoped for despite passionate fan advocacy.
