Author Kelly Van has filed a lawsuit in California, claiming that director James Cameron lifted the idea for “Avatar” from her novel, “Sheila the Warrior: The Damned.”
The novel was originally published in 2003.
The complaint doesn’t indicate how producers got access to her work, but it alleges substantial similarity in characters, setting, plot, visual effects, scenes, concept and feel. Van’s “Sheila” novel details two women who travel to another “breathtakingly beautiful” planet, full of peace and a nice ecosystem, fall in love with the locals and deal with “bloodsuckers” intent on destroying the planet if they can’t get control of valuable minerals.
“This suit is absolutely baseless,” a studio spokesperson for Fox tells the Hollywood Reporter. “Jim Cameron’s treatment for ‘Avatar’ was written before Ms. Van alleges she even started to write her book.”
Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t Avatar a rip-off since day 1?! Even the name was a complete wastrel given that AVATAR has always been related (as far back as I can remember) to the Japanime of the same name, with several seasons and tons of fan worldwide. Humble M. Night Shyamalan had to conform himself (and all of us Original Avatar Fans) for his “Last AirBender” proyect to the pelfic megirm of James Cameron.
No worries, Justice will be served.
While there’s no question Cameron ripped someone off for his movie, I think the biggest question is WHO he ripped off. It’s not like his ripping off of Ellison’s work for his Terminator movie is a secret. He’s yet to have an original movie idea.
Hey Cameron and the Wachowski’s took Sophia Stewart’s “Third Eye” as the inspiration for their movies… so, it’s not like it’s without precedence.
Bah… there’s no original stories. Unless this writer can prove without a doubt that Cameron plagerized her work, she;s just another person trying to get some free publicity out of riding the coat tails of a celebrity.
Actually, if she’s really certain this happen, let her put her novel to the test, Let it go to court and if it turns out not to be provable, she remove the novel from circulation and can never publish it again/
Is Don Bluth going to sue? He should. Avatar was a big $$ production of “Ferngully”
Ferngully, Dances with Wolves, Atlantis the Lost Empire or this women’s novel, take your pick. Avatar was a derivative work that did little; beyond the technology used to create it, to differentiate it from earlier works with similar themes, characters and plot elements.
OK, this author seriously didn’t pay attention to any of the half dozen films that came out before her book upon which Avatar was based. If she had, she would have figured that time bandits had ransacked her notes as she was writing and retroactively made huge successes before her book was published. Then they would have sued her.
Good Grief. If it’s a rip-off of anything its Poul Anderson’s “Call Me Joe” (published in 1957) not her never even published nonsense.
my daughter saw avatar. she said daddy, it’s pocahontas.
I was telling someone the other night how there is very little original material left from which to create a truely unique story, if that. When I saw “Avatar” I thought of “Ferngully” but both movies are good in their own right. Aside from movies of a similar nature, “Avatar” is sadly based on human history, some recent and some from a very long time ago.
Don’t get me wrong “Avatar” is a pretty good movie but it’s not James Cameron’s fault if not’s totally original. It’s very hard for any writer to find something really different. The only reason to keep telling the same story again is for a new generation. This is why I don’t care too much about originallity because I know thats unlikely but it never hurts to re-iterate to try and get the message out to the kids.