Hellboy's del Toro, Shutter Island's Kalogridis brought manga to Cameron's attention

Producer Jon Landau told the MTV Splash Page website that director James Cameron is planning his film adaptation of Yukito Kishiro 's Battle Angel Alita ( GUNNM ) manga after the sequel to the #1 all-time blockbuster, Avatar . He also noted that it was another auteur director, Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy, Pan's Labyrinth, The Hobbit) , who actually brought the manga to Cameron and Landau's attention.

Landau explained how screenwriter Laeta Kalogridis (Shutter Island, Ghost in the Shell ) expanded Cameron and Landau's awareness of the manga after she was brought onboard the project. Cameron and Landau were already familiar with one of the manga volumes and the anime adaptation, but Kalogridis "opened us up to the other nine books that exist, and how rich that world is.”

As a result, Cameron decided to make Avatar first. Landau added, “We really wanted to take our time in developing a large arc-ing story that really encompasses the whole world [of Battle Angel Alita ]. We were very close to doing that movie before we did Avatar , and I think you'll see that resurface. That's a story in our minds about: What does it mean to be human? What does it mean to fall in love? Are you human if you have a heart? Are you human if you have a mind? Or are you human if you just have a body? It's a journey of self-discovery for a young girl.”