Case Closed

Judge: James Cameron Did Not Rip Off ‘Avatar’

Director wins idea-theft lawsuit.

James Cameronbeat back an idea-theft claim from an artist who alleged the director ripped off 14 of his paintings to create his 2009 science-fiction blockbuster Avatar, the first film to gross more than $2 billion at the box office. U.S. District Court Judge Jesse M. Furman dismissed a suit filed by the artist, William Roger Dean, seeking damages from Cameron, 20th Century Fox and the director’s production company. Dean had alleged in the suit, which was heard in New York, that Cameron stole aspects of the movie’s planet Pandora, including its biosphere and some of its alien creatures. In throwing out the case, the judge said several of Dean’s claims were “misguided.” Cameron has three sequels planned.