James Cameron sued for stealing ‘Avatar’ idea

Washington: James Cameron stole the story of his mega blockbuster ‘Avatar’ from a science fiction nerd who once worked with the filmmaker’s production company, a new lawsuit has claimed. Eric Ryder is suing the Canadian film director insisting that he came up with a movie called ‘KRZ 2068’ back in 1997, which was an environmentally themed 3D epic about a corporation’s colonization and plundering of a distant moon’s lush and wondrous natural setting. Ryder claimed that the movie also involved self-contained robotic exterior suits, which house a single human operator, just like in ‘Avatar,’ TMZ.com reported. According to the suit filed in L.A. County Superior Court, Ryder claims his representatives pitched the movie idea to Cameron’s production company back in 1999 and they had multiple serious meetings with high-ranking executives about the development of the project. But in 2002, the company officially shut down the project telling him that no one would watch an environmentally themed feature length science fiction movie. So when ‘Avatar’ hit theatres in 2009 and made tons of money Ryder was furious. In his suit, Ryder alleges he complained to Cameron’s people in 2009 but they finally got back to him earlier this year and told him that the 57-year-old filmmaker had written the story before 1999. Ryder said Cameron’s people are lying claiming that there are way too many similarities between the two projects including one of the characters played by Sigourney Weaver. ANI