The day a movie turns a profit, the vultures come out to pick. More often than not when a movie becomes a hit, people accuse the filmmakers of stealing their ideas and sue them for a taste of the profits. A recent example is the highest grossing movie of all time, Avatar. Writer director James Cameron (pictured) and Lightstorm Entertainment are reportedly fighting multiple lawsuits concerning the film, one in particular from a man named Gerald Morawski who accuses Cameron of stealing his pitch about a war between a native tribe and a mining company.
To combat this lawsuit, the filmmaker wrote a 45-page text for the court, nearly a small autobiography, detailing all the points in his life where Avatar began to blossom into an idea. They date back to his childhood. One of the biggest examples, though, is a short film he created in 1978 called Xenogenesis, which Cameron says in the document, contains material that “may be used in the Avatar sequels.” What could that mean? Watch the film yourself and discuss below.
The Hollywood Reporter posted the full Cameron statement, which we’ve embedded below the video. But here’s the most relevant piece, from paragraph 19:
In the late 1970s, I wrote on a project called Xenogenesis, co-writer a treatment and draft script for Xenogenesis with [Randy] Frakes….Attached as Exhibits 6 and 7 are true and correct copies of relevant portions of the treatment and draft script that I wrote with Mr. Frakes in or about 1977-1979…
Read More: Germain Lussier, SlashFilm.com
