Mahershala Ali in Talks to Join ‘Alita: Battle Angel’Posted by Wilson Morales
October 4, 2016
Source: THR
The Hollywood Reporter is stating that Mahershala Ali is in talks to join ‘Alita: Battle Angel,’ an adaptation of the manga graphic novels.
Robert Rodriguez is directing while James Cameron and his Lightstorm Entertainment partner Jon Landau are producing for Fox. Rosa Salazar, Christoph Waltz, Jackie Earl Haley, Ed Skrein and Keann Johnson have already been cast in the film.
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. Haley will play a monstrous cyborg and Waltz will portray Doctor Dyson Ido, the cybersurgeon who finds the cyborg and becomes her mentor.
Ali will play one of the movie’s villains, a man named Vector who runs and fixes matches in a gladiator-style combat game called Motorball.
Fox has already set a July 20, 2018, release date for “Alita: Battle Angel,” which is expected to start production next month in Austin, Texas.
Mahershala Ali, who currently plays the villain known as Cornell “Cottonmouth” Stokes on Marvel’s Netflix series Luke Cage, is best known for for his Emmy nominated role as Remy Stanton on Netflix’s House of Cards. He will next be seen in Barry Jenkins‘ critical favorite Moonlight, followed by the period drama Hidden Figures, opposite Taraji P. Henson and Octavia Spencer.
