'Alita: Battle Angel' Featurette: James Cameron And Robert Rodriguez Talk Making The Manga Adaptation

James Cameron and Robert Rodriguez are the two high-profile names behind Alita: Battle Angel, which is set to hit theaters in February. A month ahead of the film's theatrical release, 20th Century Fox has released a new Alita Battle Angel featurette depicting a conversation between the two filmmakers speaking about their vision for this big-budget anime adaptation.

Alita: Battle Angel is "not like any of the films that I've done before or you've done before," Cameron said in the featurette, which delves a little into the film's long production history before launching into a two-minute praise session between the two directors.

"Alita's story is really about that juxtaposition of that really hard-edged action and this really brutal world with this very soft-centered character who's also tough as steel," Cameron said of the film, speaking at length about how he initially wanted to direct Alita but had his hands full with the Avatar sequels. "Then I thought, am I really ready to give up my baby? So I said, if you can crack the code and you want to do it, let's do it."

Rodriguez was happy to take on the directorial duties, having identified so much with the character at the center of the film, played by Rosa Salazar. "It's such a unique character and the way that it was in your script, I thought I identify with this character: feeling insignificant, realizing she has power but figuring out what to do with that power," Rodriguez added. "How do you decide your own morality, your own values?"

The two pause their praise session for each other to compliment the work by Weta Digital, the digital effects studio founded by Peter Jackson that was responsible for the effects in Alita: Battle Angel. "It was like seeing the movie for the first time, Rodriguez said.

Here is the official synopsis for Alita: Battle Angel:

From visionary filmmakers James Cameron (AVATAR) and Robert Rodriguez (SIN CITY), comes ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL, an epic adventure of hope and empowerment. When Alita (Rosa Salazar) awakens with no memory of who she is in a future world she does not recognize, she is taken in by Ido (Christoph Waltz), a compassionate doctor who realizes that somewhere in this abandoned cyborg shell is the heart and soul of a young woman with an extraordinary past. As Alita learns to navigate her new life and the treacherous streets of Iron City, Ido tries to shield her from her mysterious history while her street-smart new friend Hugo (Keean Johnson) offers instead to help trigger her memories. But it is only when the deadly and corrupt forces that run the city come after Alita that she discovers a clue to her past – she has unique fighting abilities that those in power will stop at nothing to control. If she can stay out of their grasp, she could be the key to saving her friends, her family and the world she's grown to love.

Alita: Battle Angel opens in theaters on February 14, 2019.