ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL
PG-13, 122 minutes Playing at at Niantic, Waterford, Stonington, Westbrook, Lisbon
her new world, she begins to discover her latent fighting powers and develops feelings for street-smart Hugo (Keean Johnson).
Landau said director James Cameron first fell in love with the Alita novels in 1999, and spent five years working on a script that ballooned to nearly 200 pages with 600 pages of notes. He says Cameron got waylaid working on “Avatar” (2009) and its sequels before one day having a social lunch with director Robert Rodriguez.
“He said if you can crack this down to a shooting length, you can direct it,” Landau recalls. “And Robert did.”
During principal filming in Austin, Texas, Salazar wore a motion-capture suit so her character could later be animated to reflect its look in the novels. When the first trailers came out last year, some viewers said Alita’s eyes appeared huge to the point of being creepy.
Senior visual effects supervisor Joe Letteri, from the Weta Digital studio in New Zealand’s capital Wellington, said they discussed the eyes with Cameron, and he had the opposite reaction, telling them they had held back and should go bigger.
“And it wasn’t the size of the eyes, it was the size of the pupils,” Letteri said. “Because that was a quality in the book, that sort of doll-like quality, and he thought we should bring that out more. And it worked.”
Salazar, who previously appeared in “Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials” (2015), said she completed many months of martial arts training in disciplines like Muay Thai to prepare for the fight sequences.
“It was a lot of working through soreness, working through pain, getting my endurance up,” she said.
She broke some ribs during her training, she said.
“I fell on my ribs doing a whip kick,” she said. “My other foot just kind of gave out, my other leg kind of swept from under me, and I fell directly on my ribs. I couldn’t breathe for a little while.”
She said she always trusted her character would look good on the screen after Rodriguez showed her some concept art before she got the role.
“They had a vision,” she said. “They stuck to that vision. I trust their vision. And then that is what we ended up with.”
She said she can empathize with the way Alita transforms from a girl to a woman in the movie, after shedding one body for another. “I could relate to that when I was 14 and I felt like a mutant,” she said.
Waltz, who played Col. Hans Landa in “Inglourious Basterds,” said he had no experience with graphic novels before reading up on Alita.
“The manga, comic, graphic novel thing is not my world at all,” he said. “I know nothing about it. And I realize that there is a vast field to be discovered.” — 8 p.m., Mohegan Sun Wolf Den; free.
— 8 p.m., Foxwoods’ Fox Theater; $25; 1-800-200-2882.
— 8 p.m., Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center, 300 Main St., Old Saybrook; $40; 1-877503-1286.
— 8:30 p.m., Side Door Jazz Club, 85 Lyme St., Old Lyme; $40; (860) 4342600.
— 7 and 9:30 p.m., Comix at Mohegan Sun; $25-$55; 1-800-745-3000.
— 7 p.m., Foxwoods’ Grand Theater; with the Steep Canyon Rangers and Jeff Babko; $60-$251; 1-800200-2882.
— 2 and 7 p.m., Bacon Academy, 611 Norwich Ave., Colchester; Colchester Community Theater production; $15, $12 seniors and children; (860) 639-9315.
— 7:30 p.m., Tansill Theater, Connecticut College, 270 Mohegan Ave., New London; performed by the Pickup Performance Co(s).; $20, $18 seniors, $10 students; (860) 4392787.
— 7:30 p.m., Chestnut Street Playhouse, 24 Chestnut St., Norwich; Pulitzer Prize-winning musical; $27, $25 seniors, $15 students and children; (860) 886-2378.
— 8 p.m., Garde Arts Center, 325 State St., New London; Monty Python musical; $39-$58; (860) 444-7373.
— 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Velvet Mill, 22 Bayview Ave., Stonington; artisan and vendor market.
— 10 a.m.-1 p.m., Velvet Mill, 22 Bayview Ave., Stonington.
— 10 a.m., Denison Pequotsepos Nature Center, 109 Pequotsepos Road, Mystic; workshop to learn how to spot animal presence outside; $13 members, $15 nonmembers; (860) 536-1216.
— 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Mystic Seaport Museum, 75 Greenmanville Ave.; games, demonstrations and more in conjunction with the “Death in the Ice” exhibition; included in museum admission; (860) 572-5331.
— 10 a.m.-7 p.m., Mohegan Sun Earth Expo and Convention Center; through Sunday; $12, free for children ages 12 and younger; 1-800745-3000.
— noon, William A. Buckingham Library, 307 Main St., Norwich; tours and 2 p.m. presentation by Christopher Wigren; free.
— 1 p.m., Coogan Farm, 162 Greenmanville Ave., Mystic; tips and tricks for starting seeds inside for outdoor planting; $17 members, $20 nonmembers; (860) 536-1216.
— 3 p.m., Waterford Public Library, 49 Rope Ferry Road; local artist Kimberly Love Radcliff discusses her current quilt exhibit depicting African American authors; free; (860) 444-5805.
— 6 p.m., Stonington Harbor Yacht Club, 32 Water St., Stonington; presentation by author Charles Monagan; $5 members, $10 nonmembers; registration requested; (860) 535-0112.
— 10 a.m.-2 p.m., Waterford Public Library, 49 Rope Ferry Road; make and take crafts for all ages with a caregiver; free; (860) 444-5805.
— 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Mystic and Noank Library, 40 Library St., Mystic; giant Lego fun for all ages; free; (860) 536-7721.
— noon, Otis Library, 261 Main St., Norwich; children read to a therapy dog; free; (860) 889-2365.
— 1 p.m., Ocean House, 1 Bluff Ave., Watch Hill; led by artisan-in-residence Susan Rosano; $65; (844) 204-4317.
— 2:30 p.m., Groton Public Library, 52 Newtown Road; hosted by the Junior Friends to support library programming; free, refreshments available for purchase; (860) 4416750.
— 5:30 p.m., Denison Pequotsepos Nature Center, 109 Pequotsepos Road, Mystic; stars and space exploration program for ages 5-12; $26 members, $30 nonmembers, sibling discounts available; (860) 536-1216.