Having secured Rosa Salazar as the lead in their adaptation of the futuristic manga ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL, director Robert Rodriguez and producer James Cameron are now looking to fill out the rest of the cast. For one of the main characters, Rodriguez has turned to an actor who has had great success working with his GRINDHOUSE collaborator Quentin Tarantino: Christoph Waltz.
Waltz is in negotiations to play Doctor Dyson Ido, a cybersurgeon who discovers a female cyborg (Salazar's character) in a scrapyard.
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.
Ido becomes a mentor to the cyborg. Waltz playing the mentor to a bounty hunter? Sounds a lot like the role he won an Oscar for playing in Tarantino's DJANGO UNCHAINED.
Studio 20th Century Fox is hoping to get the 26th century sci-fi film into production this fall and aim to have the film in theatres in July of 2018.
Rosa Salazar