The manga and anime versions of Battle Angel Alita are established classics, but the live-action film version has been a long time coming, with James Cameron this close to making it for most of the last 20 years. As he got stuck in to the Avatar sequels he handed the job to Robert Rodriguez, and today we get the first look at Rodriguez’ work in action in Alita: Battle Angel’s first trailer. Check it out below.
Rosa Salazar (Maze Runner series, Insurgent) takes the lead as the manga-eyed Alita, a cyborg found in pieces in a scrap heap by Dyson Ido (Christoph Waltz), who takes her home and restores her to, er, cyber-health. But their town of Iron City is a violent place, filled with hunter-warriors like Ed Skrein’s Zapan, and subject to the whims of the wealthy city of Zalem (aka Tiphares in the manga) that floats above.
The film also stars Jennifer Connelly as the mysterious Chiren, Mahershala Ali in a dual role as black marketer Vector and the body-jumping Nova, and Keean Johnson as Hugo, Alita’s love interest. The likes of Michelle Rodriguez, Jackie Earle Haley, Casper Van Dien and Jeff Fahey round out the cast.
You can read our full trailer breakdown here, but expect to see Alita: Battle Angel on 19 July next year.