Licensing Expo is currently taking place in Las Vegas and among the upcoming movies being promoted to vendors is 2018 20th Century Fox projects The Predator and live-action manga adaptation Alita: Battle Angel. Movie site Collider got an early look at the very early promo material.

Rosa Salazar is playing the title character, and Christoph Waltz, Mahershala Ali and Ed Skrein are among the other cast members.

Robert Rodriguez (Machete, Desperado, Spy Kids) will direct the live-action adaptation, produced by Cameron and his Lightstorm Entertainment partner Jon Landau.

Hollywood Reporter describes the film, eyed by Fox for Summer 2018: 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.

The manga is also back in North America with a digital release on Amazon's Comixlogy platform.

Announced last month at the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo also plans to re-release Yukito Kishiro's 1990-1995 action sci-fi manga Battle Angel Alita in 2-in-1 volumes. The inspiration for the 2018 live-action Alita: Battle Angel and predecessor to Alita: Last Order and Mars Chronicles was previously released by Viz. Kishiro had a falling out with his Ulta Jump editor during Last Order and the series moved from Shueisha to Kodansha.

Battle Angel Alita is back!

w/ new translation.

First time on digital.

Exclusively on @comiXology&@AmazonKindle https://t.co/06nikac0eY pic.twitter.com/N39i493hk8 — Kodansha Comics (@KodanshaUSA) May 24, 2017

BATTLE ANGEL ALITA is back! Now you can read the epic sci-fi manga for FREE w/ #comiXologyUnlimited. More info here https://t.co/Q6YUTadIAR pic.twitter.com/opCOCgVCT6 — comiXology (@comiXology) May 24, 2017

#NCBD is here & with it comes the RETURN of BATTLE ANGEL ALITA! https://t.co/NR4QApK2Ov pic.twitter.com/VRFJ49biS6 — comiXology (@comiXology) May 24, 2017









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Scott Green is editor and reporter for anime and manga at geek entertainment site Ain't It Cool News. Follow him on Twitter at @aicnanime.