Director Robert Rodriquez (Sin City, Desperado) has cast yet another villain in his manga adaptation Alita: Battle Angel which is already brimming with baddies.
This time Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Connelly (Requiem For A Dream, Dark City, Labyrinth, A Beautiful Mind) will likely be playing Chiren, a cyberphysician from Zalem (ariel city) who works on repairing/building cyborgs for main villain Vector and was the former partner of Dr. Dyson Ido.
Also playing villains in the cyberpunk action flick include Oscar nominee Mahershala Ali (Luke Cage, Moonlight, Predators), Ed Skrien (Deadpool, Game of Thrones), and Jackie Earle Haley (Watchmen, Robocop). Other potential villains might be played by Leonard Wu, Eiza González, Jorge Lendeborg Jr., Elle LaMont, and Jorge A. Jimenez along with multiple cyborg opponents/bounty-hunters that Rosa Salazar‘s Alita will face in the film.
Alita’s allies include two-time Oscar winner Christoph Waltz‘s Ido, Keean Johnson‘s Hugo, Lana Condor‘s Koyomi, and Chilean martial artist Marko Zaror‘s Ajakutty.
I originally thought that Eiza González could be playing Chiren but due to Connelly’s age compared to Christoph Waltz and Mahershala Ali, it makes more sense she has landed that role.
Set in the 26th century, Alita tells of a female cyborg (Salazar) that is discovered in a scrapyard by a scientist. With no memory of her previous life except her deadly martial-arts training, the woman becomes a bounty hunter, tracking down criminals. The action-adventure story is meant to serve as a backdrop to themes of self-discovery and the search for love.
Battle Angel is the first installment in a planned trilogy that James Cameron had been developing and co-wrote for himself before hiring Rodriguez to take over for him when he decided to focus on the four Avatar sequels.
Filming is already taking place in Austin, Texas at Robert’s Troublemaker Studios with the release date set for July 20th, 2018.
SOURCE: THR