880 in front of Alita?

The future for James Cameron and Battle Angel Alita

I've been waiting quite a while to see what he was doing with Battle Angel Alita, but now it looks like that isn't actually what he's up to these days. Instead it's Project 880/Avatar

It looks Like Project 800/Avatar has been bumped up in front of Battle Angel Alita. *Ugh* What are you thinking James? However since you are pure greatness, I will still bow to you as the messiah of Science Fiction Goodness.

It has been nine years since James Cameron made the box-office smash Titanic. Since then, he hasn’t just been sitting on piles of money or staring at his Oscars. He’s made three documentaries (including Aliens Of The Deep) and invested heavily in new 3D camera technology.

And now he’s back. But while we’d all come to the conclusion – based on a recent casting call for a “lithe, athletic teen” – that he was gearing up to make his long-rumoured adaptation of anime sci-fi classic Battle Angel Alita, he’s just revealed that it’s not necessarily first in his mind. Talking to Entertainment Weekly, he finally admitted the truth: “We’ve moved Project 880 into first position.”

So what is this mysterious Project 880? Ask Cameron, and all you get is a cryptic reply: “It’s as classified as the Manhattan Project.” Yeah, thanks, Jim. But observers and speculators are already a-twitter at the thought that this is Avatar, his long-cherished, epic sci-fi love story set against a raging interplanetary war. SFX read the script treatment which leaked onto the internet years ago, and it’s an effects-heavy piece which would only be possible with bleeding edge technology.

Luckily for Cameron, that’s exactly his style. ''We couldn't do one unless we do both,'' says Cameron. ''They use the same technology.'' He’s talking about Gollum-style realistic motion capture and the 3D cameras he’s been working on.

And we can expect both films within - we hope - the next few years. They’re currently planned for release by 20th Century Fox in 2007 and 2009, but don’t hold him to that: “'We don't want to get jammed up like on Titanic,'' Cameron says, refusing to rule out the possibility of Project 880 moving to 2008. ''The consensus has been we will serve no wine before its time.''