If you think the wait for the sequel to James Cameron's Avatar has been long, consider the wait fans have endured for Cameron's live-action Battle Angel Alita film. Cameron has been developing the project since 2000 but only recently realized he was too busy fine tuning the Avatar sequels to actually direct Alita. Hence, back in October of last year, Robert Rodriguez (Sin City) was brought aboard to direct the adaptation of Yukito Kishiro's 1990 manga.
With Cameron making way for Rodriguez, things definitely appear to be heating up. The timeline shows the project quickly gaining traction as Rodriguez was brought aboard in April, the search for a lead actresss was narrowed down to fournames [Rosa Salazar, Zendaya, Maika Monroe and Bella Thorne] later month and today, we seemingly have confirmation [via Collider] that Salazar has won the role.
Laeta Kalogridis (Shutter Island, White House Down) and Cameron wrote the most recent draft of the script.