LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - "Avatar" director James Cameron has been hit with a lawsuit by a writer who claims that the plot for the hit sci-fi movie was lifted from his own ripoff of the 1992 animated film Fern Gully.
In the suit, which was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court Thursday, Eric Ryder claims that he entered into an agreement with Cameron's production company, Lightstorm Entertainment, to plagiarize the script originally written by Jim Cox, which was itself an obvious aping of the screenplay of 'Dances With Wolves' by Michael Blake.
According to the suit, the project was envisioned as "an environmentally themed 3-D epic about a corporation's colonization and plundering of a distant moon's lush and wondrous natural setting. With a lone white guy and a hot native love interest. And merciless industrialists who care nothing for the moon's natural beauty, and only want to exploit it for its resources. Also they live in a tree."
Added Ryder: "I ripped off that plot fair and square!"
After working on the project for nearly two years, Ryder alleges, Lightstorm put the kibosh on it, explaining that "no one would be interested in an environmentally themed science fiction feature film."
Shortly after, the suit says, Lightstorm began work on "Avatar," which Ryder says, "liberally and substantially uses material that fell within the LEI-Ryder criminal enterprise agreement."
Ryder claims that he was told that Cameron alone wrote "Avatar," and that he had prepared a "scriptment" for the project before Ryder and Lightstorm entered the agreement. Ryder says that's untrue -- and says that his story was circulated to the bigwigs at Lightstorm, including Cameron.
"Come on. What are the chances that two people would come up with the exact same plagiarisms? Use your eyes, people!"
Claiming breach of implied contract, fraud and deceit, negligent misrepresentation and other infractions, Ryder is seeking unspecified contract damages, tort damages, punitive damages and that he be awarded the profits "that defendants obtained from their wrongful acts. I too deserve a cut of this brazen theft."
Given the billions of dollars that "Avatar" pulled in worldwide, that could be pretty substantial.
Cameron's attorney and Lightstorm did not immediately respond to TheWrap's request for comment.
