Even though he’s been pretty caught up in the ‘Avatar’ universe, and will be for the foreseeable future, box office juggernaut James Cameron still wants to direct ‘Battle Angel’, the adaptation of Yukito Kishiro’s manga ‘Battle Angel Alita’. Prior to focusing on ‘Avatar’, this project was a very high priority on the director’s to do list, and apparently it still is, judging by his comments to MTV.

Today, Cameron sat down with MTV for a short interview to talk about ‘Battle Angel’, which he calls ‘just a great, kick-ass story’. In the interview, he admits that even though he’s enthusiastic about ‘Battle Angel’, he sees ‘Avatar’ as far more important. I’m not sure that I agree with that, but here’s a quote:

“I see the good that the ‘Avatar’ franchise can do in terms of keeping a world audience cognizant of our relationship with nature, but doing it in an entertainment context. Ultimately, I think there’s more good to be done there than with ‘Battle Angel’.”

Right, sure. Maybe if he develops the ‘Avatar’ story a bit better and give us something more than a movie that uses cutting edge 3D technology to make blue people look pretty… Right, I’m getting away from the point here.

The director reiterated his past statements about handing over directing duties to someone else by saying that ‘Battle Angel’ “would have to be pried out of my cold, dead fingers. But on the other hand I don’t want to take it to my grave, either.”

Check out the full video below, courtesy of /Film.

 

‘Battle Angel Alita’ is set in a post-apocalyptic future and focuses on a discarded cyborg named Alita who has lost all her memories except for the legendary cyborg martial art Panzer Kunst. A cybernetics doctor rebuilds and cares for Alita before she sets off on a journey as a bounty hunter in an attempt to rediscover her past and the players in it.

In the past, Cameron summarized the story and his interest in it with this quote:

“’Battle Angel’, I think, is a science fiction movie that begs the question ‘What does it mean to be human?’ It takes place in a future world, a world that has cyborgs, but are you human if you have a mind, if you have a heart, if you have a soul? It’s a journey of a young girl who tries to discover herself and what she learns upon that journey… I just love the character. Maybe it’s from having daughters. I have three daughters, and thinking about what it’s like, the main character is this little girl that everybody kind of ignores. She’s got such a heroic heart on the inside, I’ve always loved that character.”

This interview is the first we’ve heard about ‘Battle Angel’ in nearly a year. And even then, the status of the project was just basically that he wanted to do it. With his schedule tied up for about 4 or 5 years with the ‘Avatar’ sequels, who knows when we’ll finally see ‘Battle Angel’ on the big screen.