James Cameron sued again
They say lightning never strikes twice in the same place.
And no doubt James Cameron will be wishing the old saying held true after being sued again by a science fiction writer accusing him of pinching the idea of Avatar.
Bryant Moore is claiming the legendary writer and director pinched the concept for the highest grossing blockbuster of all time from two of his screenplays, the little known Aquatica and Descendants: The Pollination.
He is claiming for $2.5 billion on the basis similarities include bioluminescent flora/plant life, unbreathable atmospheres and matriarch support of hero vs. heroine.
Other features he said were borrowed include spiritual connections to environment and reincarnation, appearance of mist in scene, sunlight to moonlight, crackling from gargantuan foliage, blue skin/green skin and battle scene on limbs/branches.
However the Titanic director's attorney Bert Fields has promised to sink the claim in court.
He told the Mail Online: 'Mr Cameron wrote Avatar and not Mr Moore or anyone else.
'We will of course demonstrate that in court. There is no merit to the lawsuit whatsoever.'
Mr Moore wants more than $1.5 billion in actual damages and and more than $1 billion as punitive settlement.
The development follows a similar lawsuit levelled against the Oscar-winning director earlier this month.
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Eric Ryder wants unspecified damages for his contribution to the film, which made $1.7billion and was the highest grossing in cinema history.
He claims he that in 1999 whilst working for the Terminator creator he wrote a story called K.R.Z. 2068, which has remarkable similarities to Avatar.
But in 2002 the project was shut down because ‘no one would go see an environmentally themed feature length science fiction movie’ - apparently until Avatar came out in 2009.
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The lawsuit is the latest in a number against Avatar but is thought to be the first by a former employee for Lightstorm, Cameron’s film production company.
Filed at the Los Angeles Superior Court, Ryder claims he was forced to take action after ‘exploitation of the motion picture Avatar’.
He says that it was based on his own ‘environmentally-themed 3-D epic about a corporation’s colonisation and plundering of a distant moon’s lush and wondrous natural setting’
He also claims his version features ‘anthropomorphic, organically created beings populating that moon’.
In his plot, just like Avatar, there is even a corporate spy whose relationship with one of the beings leads to their ‘spiritual transformation into the leader of the lunar beings’ revolt against the corporation’s mining practices’.
And... action: James Cameron on the set of the 2009 hit film
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