James Cameron, his production company Lightstorm Entertainment, The Walt Disney Company and several Disney subsidiaries have been named as defendants in copyright lawsuit filed in California federal court. The complaint, filed by 3D animator Eric Ryder, alleges copyright infringement, breach of contract, breach of confidence and unfair competition.
Represented by Kasowitz LLP attorney Daniel Saunders, Ryder alleges that Cameron and his production company Lightstorm, misappropriated Ryder’s intellectual property to create the franchise’s second blockbuster, Avatar: The Way of Water (2022). The 47-page complaint claims that Ryder’s project, KRZ, featured a distinctive narrative structure, themes, plot devices, characters and story progression that were allegedly copied.
Filed just ahead of the Friday theatrical release of Cameron’s third installment Avatar: Fire and Ash, Ryder is seeking at least $500 million in damages, as well as a a court order blocking the film’s release.
Saunders stated,
The complaint includes side-by-side comparisons showing how Mr. Ryder’s original ideas—including those he refused to sell to Cameron and his production company Lightstorm—match up directly with The Way of Water‘s plot, setting, and design elements. We look forward to proving the defendants’ liability in court, as well as to seeing whether and to what extent ideas of Mr. Ryder’s have continued to be incorporated into the next sequel being released later this week.
Ryder previously filed a lawsuit over the first Avatar film. The case was dismissed after the court found that Cameron created Avatar before Ryder submitted his story to Lightstorm.
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