Director James Cameron on Tuesday praised the judge and jurists who found in his favor last week in a $2.5 billion copyright infringement lawsuit over the 2009 blockbuster, “Avatar,” blasting the myriad claims against him over the concept for the film.
“Sadly, a cottage industry has arisen of fortune hunting plaintiffs seeking to ‘strike it rich’ by claiming their ideas were the basis for Avatar,” Cameron said in a statement released to TheWrap by 20th Century Fox.
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“As I have previously stated, Avatar was my most personal film, drawing upon themes and concepts that I had been exploring for decades. Our film was also the product of a team of some of the world’s most creative artists and designers, and it is an insult to all of them when these specious claims are made.”
Twentieth Century Fox said in its release that this suit, dismissed in U.S. District Court in Maryland on Friday, was the third case to be dismissed in the past year brought by individuals who claimed their works were the basis for “Avatar.”
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“[T]here was no evidence at all to suggest that Cameron had access to Moore’s works or that Cameron used anything of Moore’s in creating Avatar,” the statement read.
“Previously, separate claims brought by Gerald Marowski and by Eric Ryder were dismissed on the basis that it was undisputed that Cameron independently created Avatar.”