Robert Rodriguez gives us an exclusive update on ‘Alita: Battle Angel’ & ‘Johnny Quest’

Director Robert Rodriguez gives us an exclusive update on both Alita: Battle Angel and Johnny Quest. 

Robert Rodriguez has to be one of the best directors currently working. He burst onto the scene with the fantastic El Mariachi, which premiered at Sundance and he has since gone onto direct a wide range of classics – Desperado, From Dusk Till Dawn, Spy Kids, Sin City, The Faculty and Machete. He’s also hard at work in the television realm, and is currently working on the third season of the From Dusk Till Dawn series, a spin-off from his own 1996 film.

Once he wraps work on the new season Rodriguez has a couple of high profile movies on his slate, namely Johnny Quest and  Alita: Battle Angel. We were fortunate enough to have a catch up with Robert and here’s what he had to say about the projects.

I start shooting Battle Angel really soon, probably in the next six months – that’s the plan anyway. Johnny Quest would have to be after that because Battle Angel kind of jockeyed for position. That one got in there first.

Of course Rodriguez wasn’t always in line to direct Battle Angel, the project has been a passion project of fellow director James Cameron for the last couple of decades. Cameron though has since fallen madly in love with the moon called Pandora, and is deep in pre-production on the three Avatar sequels. Rodriguez however, couldn’t be happier about bringing the project to cinemas for Cameron:

Yeah, it’s the project that he [James Cameron] had always wanted to do and started working on before he made Avatar (laughs) and now he’s gotta do [more] Avatars which left an opening for Battle Angel to be made. I’ve known him a long time and we’ve talked about it and we’re both looking forwards to bringing it to life. I’ve always wanted to see his version of Battle Angel but I suppose the closest thing to that is making it for him whilst he’s busy with Avatar.

It’s exciting to work with him, he’s an amazing talent. It’s a masterclass in filmmaking just sitting in a room with him asking him how he did certain things and to do it. I’d pay for that experience.

Sadly we’ve got a pretty long wait for either film, Alita: Battle Angel has a release date of 20th July 2018 with Johnny Quest yet to be given one.