Cameron returns with a vengeance

Titanic director James Cameron has resurfaced after seven years of silence to launch a silver screen adaptation of the Manga comic Battle Angel Alita.

16:29 22 November 2004

Titanic director James Cameron has resurfaced after seven years of silence to launch a silver screen adaptation of the Manga comic Battle Angel Alita.

The man behind Aliens and the first two Terminators has kept himself to himself since Titanic broke records in 1998 by winning no less than 11 Oscars.

His most recent projects were documentaries confined to the IMAX screens such as Ghosts of the Abyss and the forthcoming Aliens of the Deep, but he is now returning to mainstream cinema and to his trademark science fiction.

Telling the post-apocalyptic saga of a young female cyborg on the warpath to discover her humanity, Battle Angel Alita is reminiscent of the format that brought Cameron such success before, complete with a futuristic kick-ass heroine and a plethora of guns.

"We're in pre-production right now on a project called 'Battle Angel'," Cameron told US radio station NPR.

"[It's] something I've been working on for several years and we're just finishing up the shooting draft right now. I want to dedicate some of my filmmaking time to environmental themes. We've been designing - it's a big science fiction film."