Last we heard from "Avatar" director James Cameron, his planned film based on Yukito Kishiro's "Battle Angel Alita" manga hadn't progressed very far, but he had some big ideas about the visual effects needed to bring to life the story of a rescued robotic warrior and her quest for redemption.

While his producing partner Jon Landau previously indicated that "Alita" would follow an "Avatar" sequel in their to-do list, Cameron told MTV News recently that the adaptation might not be as far off as that. In fact, it might happen before "Avatar 2."

"They're both possible projects," Cameron said of "Alita" and "The Dive," another effects-heavy film that's been on his radar for years. "I'm sort of weighing this constellation of really cool things I want to do." Read More...

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Two of the last three films Jon Landau has produced have become the highest-grossing films of all time. So when the guys speaks, smart people tend to listen.

Nowadays, Landau is speaking loud and clear about his Oscar hopes for “Avatar,” the potential "Avatar" sequel and a possible "Avatar" prequel for James Cameron’s hugely-successful movie — but the project he deems to be the next blockbuster Landau/Cameron franchise is “Battle Angel: Alita.”

When he stopped by our studios, Landau gave us an update on the long-gestating project, revealing that he’s determined to get Cameron to change the title to "Alita" first and foremost. But, after telling us that screenwriter Laeta Kalogridis had opened the duo’s eyes to all nine books in the series, Landau said the biggest obstacle now is figuring out which tales to tell from Yukito Kishiro’s manga series. Read More...

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Battle Angel AlitaRemember the good old days of 2005? MySpace was taking over the Internet, Mel Gibson was unleashing R-rated tirades that weren’t in any film script — and some long-forgotten hermit named James Cameron was making public appearances, claiming he had two boundary-breaking projects on the horizon.

Well, as it turns out, he was right — and choosing “Avatar” as the first of the two films to make seems pretty damn brilliant in retrospect. But what about the other movie?

“'Avatar' was something Jim had written before, but we were about to embark on a film called ‘Battle Angel: Alita,’ and then we looked at ourselves and said ‘Wait a second, ‘Avatar’ is something that Jim always referred to as his magnum opus, and we can do it now,’” remembered the filmmaker’s producing partner, Jon Landau. “But [‘Battle Angel’] is something that Jim is very, very passionate about. It was actually brought to our attention by another filmmaker, Guillermo del Toro; Guillermo saw those things in the property that he thought would really relate to Jim, and Jim responded to it immediately.” Read More...

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MTV's next "Behind The Screen" special airs this week (Wednesday, 4 PM EST) with bunches of new footage and interviews from some of the hottest upcoming films, including James Cameron's blockbuster 3-D adventure "Avatar." When we sat down with Cameron recently to discuss his plans for "Avatar," we also had to ask about another project that's been on his radar: an adaptation of Yukito Kishiro's popular manga, "Battle Angel Alita."

Following the adventures of a robotic warrior rescued from the scrapheap by a scientist, it stands to reason that Cameron's groundbreaking "Avatar" filmmaking tech could be put to good use on "Alita."

"The mixture of live-action and CG is a little trickier in 3-D than it is 2-D," Cameron told MTV News. "Now we see it's good to have done 'Avatar' first before 'Battle Angel,' because the tricky scenes are where you're blending live-action photography, stereoscopic photography and CG." Read More...

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Following the still-unmatched success of "Titanic," James Cameron made a curious career decision -- he decided to stop making fictional, plot-driven films, if only for a time. Nearly a decade later, the "Aliens" director is back with "Avatar," a technology-heavy film that's poised to change the way that movies are made.

While Cameron has already sworn off the superhero genre, his feature following "Avatar" is sure to put a smile on the faces of comic book enthusiasts -- "Battle Angel Alita."



"Maybe, maybe," Cameron told MTV News when asked if the long-discussed "Alita" would be his next film. "We're going to look at that." Read More...

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Cover Artist

Splash Page welcomes Ed Tadem to our cover artist family (our custom-designed theme up top). Currently working on the forthcoming "Avengers" animated series, Tadem's work can also be seen in the "Jackie Karma" issues of Image's "'76," and in "Pop Gun, Volume 1." Ed Tadem can be found online at EdTadem.com.
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