A little two-for-one casting news for you all today; first up, Lana Condor has signed on to join the cast of Robert Rodriguez's long-awaited adaptation of Yukito Kishiro's "Battle Angel Alita". The young actress, who recently made her film debut in Bryan Singer's X-MEN: APOCALYPSE in which she played Jubilee, will play Koyomi in ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL. In the manga, Koyomi was a "orphaned teen with connections to several characters." Set in the 26th century, ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL will tell the story of Alita (Rosa Salazar), an amnesiac female cyborg who is rescued from a scrapyard by a doctor (Christoph Waltz). The rebuilt Alita, remembering only her training in a deadly martial art, becomes a hunter-warrior, tracking down and eliminating vicious criminals. James Cameron had been developing ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL for quite some time but, due to hanging out with a group of blue aliens for the the next few years, he later passed on directing duties to Rodriquez. ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL is set for a July 20, 2018 release.
Next up, THR reports that Lucy Fry (11.22.63) has joined the cast of David Ayer's BRIGHT, the Max Landis penned supernatural cop thriller which stars Will Smith and Joel Edgerton. Set in a world in which Orcs and fairies live among the human race, BRIGHT follows a human cop (Will Smith) who is forced to work with an Orc (Joel Edgerton) in order to find a powerful wand that certain unsavory elements are prepared to kill for. As for Lucy Fry, she'll play Tikka, "a young elf with powers who is in possession of the wand and must be protected by Smith and Edgerton." Production on the Netflix movie, which also stars Noomi Rapace, will kick off later this month in Los Angeles.
Our own Editor-in-Chief Paul Shirey recently visited Xavier's School For Gifted Youngsters where he, among other things, sat down for a chat with Lana Condor.