We all know James Cameron’s 2009 film “Avatar” reflects the filmmaker’s eco-centric sensibilities. But is it possible many of the elements from the blockbuster film were swiped from a never-published screenplay?
Director James Cameron said he’d been developing the idea for the film since 1994, but had delayed production for over a decade until he felt the technology was sufficiently advanced to capture his vision.
But Vancouver restaurateur and amateur screenwriter Emil Malak is challenging Cameron’s authorship, telling CTV’s Canada AM that the Academy Award-winning director “borrowed” concepts from a screenplay Malak sent him over a decade ago….
Malak claims Cameron copied dozens of his ideas. Everything from character names and physical characteristics to the idea for a “mineral-rich blue planet” and “mystical tree of life” are alleged to have been taken straight from Malak’s original work.
Cameron is busy preparing to make “Avatar 2” in New Zealand, but it looks like this lawsuit may hound him for the foreseeable future.