December 12, 2011

Link

Filmmaker James Cameron and his Lightstorm Entertainment have been sued by a former employee who claims he spent two years developing a movie that became the basis for Avatar but he has been excluded from participating in its success.

...

Eric Ryder filed suit in Los Angeles Superior Court claiming that in 1999, while he was a Lightstorm employee, he wrote a story called K.R.Z. 2068, as well as created treatments, photos, 3-D imagery and character elements for a planned movie the company was developing.

The K.R.Z.project was to be an "environmentally-themed 3-D epic about a corporation's colonization and plundering of a distant moon's lush and wondrous natural setting," he alleges in the complaint.

The story allegedly included "a corporation spy," "anthropomorphic, organically created beings populating that moon," and a relaitonship between the spy and one of the beings that culminates in the spy becoming a leader of the group's revolt against the corporation's mining practices.

Sounds a lot like the plot of Avatar. But is the highest-grossing movie of all time really a rip-off?

Cameron and the producers of Avatar has been sued by many people who believe they came up with the idea for the project, and none of those cases has produced a judgment against the filmmaker.

This, to our knowledge, is the first suit brought by a former employee. Ryder says he and Lightstorm had an implied agreement that the company wouldn't exploit his material unless he was compensated and credited.

He says that in 2002 Lightstorm told him that the movie couldn't be made because no one would be interested in an environmentally themed science fiction film. Then Avatar came out in 2009 and made $2.8 billion worldwide.

The suit acknowledges that Cameron says he came up with the idea for Avatar and began writing before 1999, when Ryder says he wroteK.R.Z.

The complaint contains allegations of breach of implied contract, fraud, negligent misrepresentation, interntional interference with prospective economic advantage and negligent interference with prospective advantage.

i really don't understand plagiarism. of an idea, or otherwise.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again.

i really don't understand plagiarism. of an idea, or otherwise.

The writers of "Ferngully The Last Rain Forest" should sue him, too.

Not to mention Frank Herbert's son Brian.

NDRU said:

I've said it before, and I'll say it again.

i really don't understand plagiarism. of an idea, or otherwise.

What I don't understand is why it always takes these people so bloody long to come up with a lawsuit if they feel like their copyright has been infringed upon? The story of Avatar was widely reported since 2006-ish, and surely it doesn't take five years to prepare the case? Even if this guy was waiting to see how successful the movie would be in order to get the big bucks (which I would assume would make him look like an opportunist in court), that still makes him late by two years.

And those twins who sued Zuckerberg, didn't it take them like a decade to get their asses in gear? If I truly felt certain that somebody had stolen my idea/work, I'd be hopping mad and on my way to a lawyer as soon as I found out about it.

NDRU said:

I've said it before, and I'll say it again.

i really don't understand plagiarism. of an idea, or otherwise.

retina said:

NDRU said:

I've said it before, and I'll say it again.

i really don't understand plagiarism. of an idea, or otherwise.

What I don't understand is why it always takes these people so bloody long to come up with a lawsuit if they feel like their copyright has been infringed upon? The story of Avatar was widely reported since 2006-ish, and surely it doesn't take five years to prepare the case? Even if this guy was waiting to see how successful the movie would be in order to get the big bucks (which I would assume would make him look like an opportunist in court), that still makes him late by two years.

And those twins who sued Zuckerberg, didn't it take them like a decade to get their asses in gear? If I truly felt certain that somebody had stolen my idea/work, I'd be hopping mad and on my way to a lawyer as soon as I found out about it.

It is strange, isn't it? You see it all the time.

In this case the person probably had to take the time to write a ripoff screenplay of Avatar

[Edited 12/12/11 17:50pm]

this case looks like it's well documented as to what happened, and when. after all there's an employment relationship involved. and there are tons of reason why people wait to file suit. money being tops

XxAxX said:

i really don't understand plagiarism. of an idea, or otherwise.

Avatar has a lot of the same elements found in Pocahontas. (The pro enviroment stuff)

NDRU said:

I've said it before, and I'll say it again.

i really don't understand plagiarism. of an idea, or otherwise.

NDRU said:

retina said:

What I don't understand is why it always takes these people so bloody long to come up with a lawsuit if they feel like their copyright has been infringed upon? The story of Avatar was widely reported since 2006-ish, and surely it doesn't take five years to prepare the case? Even if this guy was waiting to see how successful the movie would be in order to get the big bucks (which I would assume would make him look like an opportunist in court), that still makes him late by two years.

And those twins who sued Zuckerberg, didn't it take them like a decade to get their asses in gear? If I truly felt certain that somebody had stolen my idea/work, I'd be hopping mad and on my way to a lawyer as soon as I found out about it.

It is strange, isn't it? You see it all the time.

In this case the person probably had to take the time to write a ripoff screenplay of Avatar

[Edited 12/12/11 17:50pm]

Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised.

You know author Harlen Ellison won against Cameron to get credit for the Terminator story ideas.

Also the beginning and end of Titanic with the aged character and then the death where she dreams of reuniting with her one true love in the eternally glorious environment is similar to the beginning and end of "Somewhere in Time" (1980). Altered, but similar.

But no one I hang out with has ever said Cameron was original!

"We know that such wholesale theft goes on because sometimes people just flat-out admit to it. One of the most famous examples of that came after James Cameron finished The Terminator. According to Marc Shapiro's biography of the director, a visiting journalist asked where he had gotten the idea for it, and Cameron said, "Oh, I ripped off a couple of Harlan Ellison stories." Shapiro also quotes Ellison as saying he found the "smoking gun" in a Starlog article in which Cameron was quoted as saying he got the idea for The Terminator from "a couple of Outer Limits segments." The episodes in question had both been written by Ellison. He sued and received a settlement of $400,000, along with a story credit on all theatrical and home-video prints of the film."

Hollyweird is filled with cases of plagiarism. Filmmakers can't come up with an original idea to save their fucking lives.

I should write a story about an over-weight, extremely tall, middle-aged black woman who looks like a man and has a big mouth with an even bigger attitude. She is the matriarch of a dysfunctional family and she and she's always threatening to shoot somebody. Either that or I could write a story about wooden doll that turns into a real man with the aid of a fairy. The original part is that his dick grows every time he tells a lie.

HotGritz said:

Hollyweird is filled with cases of plagiarism. Filmmakers can't come up with an original idea to save their fucking lives.

I should write a story about an over-weight, extremely tall, middle-aged black woman who looks like a man and has a big mouth with an even bigger attitude. She is the matriarch of a dysfunctional family and she and she's always threatening to shoot somebody. Either that or I could write a story about wooden doll that turns into a real man with the aid of a fairy. The original part is that his dick grows every time he tells a lie.

that's the part that really gets me. why? hollywood is full of talent. there are a TON of good writers out there with good ideas. why do they have to steal shit? is it about the money or is it ego?

XxAxX said:

HotGritz said:

Hollyweird is filled with cases of plagiarism. Filmmakers can't come up with an original idea to save their fucking lives.

I should write a story about an over-weight, extremely tall, middle-aged black woman who looks like a man and has a big mouth with an even bigger attitude. She is the matriarch of a dysfunctional family and she and she's always threatening to shoot somebody. Either that or I could write a story about wooden doll that turns into a real man with the aid of a fairy. The original part is that his dick grows every time he tells a lie.

that's the part that really gets me. why? hollywood is full of talent. there are a TON of good writers out there with good ideas. why do they have to steal shit? is it about the money or is it ego?

BOTH