James Cameron - James Cameron Files Legal Pages To Prove He Created Avatar

Gerald Morawski filed a lawsuit against the Oscar winner and his company Lightstorm Entertainment at United States District Court, Central District of California, alleging Cameron had used the subject of his paintings as the basis for the plot of the $2.78 billion-grossing movie.

Morawski claims after selling Cameron four art pieces in 1991, he pitched the director a movie entitled Guardians of Eden (Goe), about a struggle between an evil mining conglomerate and an indigenous tribe.

However, Cameron has refuted his accusations and last month (13Nov12) filed an extraordinary 45-page document analysing how he came up with the Avatar story, recalling his childhood obsession with science, and even hinting at plotlines for the sci-fi hit's upcoming sequels.

Morawski filed a motion to reject Cameron's theory on Thursday (06Dec12) and, according to his documents obtained by editors at The Hollywood Reporter, it reads, "In Plaintiff's view, it is no coincidence that, even though those alleged prior works had been in existence for 10 or 20 years, Cameron did not write the scriptment (sic) for Avatar until a few years after Plaintiff pitched Goe to Defendants. In addition, if Defendants had in fact already created works that were similar to Goe, they would have stopped Plaintiff's pitch once the alleged similarity became apparent, and would not have offered Plaintiff a deal for Goe."

A further hearing is scheduled to take place in January (13).

The case is not the first lawsuit Cameron has faced over the blockbuster - Eric Ryder, Bryant Moore and Elijah Schkeiban all filed suit last year (11) against the director alleging he stole their idea.