Sayonara 'Battle Angel Alita'

The long-running saga of director James Cameron’s adaptation of Yukito Kishiro's Battle Angel Alita manga may be over. Cameron told The New York Times: "Last year I basically disbanded my production company's development arm. So I am not interested in developing anything. I’m in the Avatar business. Period. That’s it. I’m making Avatar 2, Avatar 3, maybe Avatar 4."

There was a time when Battle Angel Alita appeared to be right around the corner, but now the prospects of seeing a Cameron-helmed adaptation of the saga of a female cyborg who is rescued from the scrap heap and becomes a world class bounty hunter appear to be very dim indeed.

From 'Avatar' Heavy to 'Conan' Villain

Stephen Lang, who played the tough as nails, nearly impossible to kill, marine-turned-mercenary Colonel Miles Quaritch in Avatar, will portray Khalar Singh, the villain in Millennium Films’ reboot of the Conan franchise, which is being directed by Marcus Nispel.

Lang confirmed his participation in the new Conan film when he was interviewed by MTV at the Academy Award show. Lang will join a cast that includes Jason Mamoa and Leo Howard as Conan and and Rachel Nichols as Tamara.

Alita: Battle Angel after Avatar 2

James Cameron’s production partner Jon Landau told MTV’s Splash Page that the filmmaker plans to make a film based on the Battle Angel Alita anime and manga after he finishes an Avatar sequel. Cameron has been talking about making the film again recently, but exactly when had been in question.

Landau said that the new script by Laeta Kalogridis had incorporated all of the manga volumes rather than just the anime and a single volume, which had been the basis of Cameron’s past interest, and that had opened up a more rich world for a film. Landau also revealed that the property had originally been introduced to Cameron by Guillermo del Toro.

Landau said that the film would have to be named Alita: Battle Angel in order to keep Cameron’s string of films whose titles begin with “T” or “A” (Avatar, Titanic, Terminator, Aliens, etc.) intact.