Zhou Shaomou, a Chinese science fiction writer, has filed a lawsuit in Beijing’s No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court on March 5, and demanded compensation of $146 Million (1 billion yuan) against James Cameron and the movie “Avatar” production company for the theft of one of Zhou’s novels.
According to Zhou, nearly 80% of “Avatar”, including stories, environment and roles’ relationships, are similar to his saga of “The Legend of Blue Raven”, which was finished in 1997 and published on Sina, NetEase and other websites in 2000.
A Guangdong lawyer, Liu Yanyu, said that the theft of Zhou’s intellectual property is based on the similarity of both structure and detail of the two works.
While it is understandable that two stories may have similar structures, the court may also consider place and time sequencing to judge whether the possibility of theft exists.
Resemblance between the two stories tends to prove Zhou’s contention that Cameron has stolen not only the concept of Avatar but directly transposed elements from Zhou’s novel into the screenplay.
On content:
“The Legend of Blue Raven” tells a story about clones cultivated by human beings to conquer extrasolar stars. The clones are cultivated in greenhouses and controlled by human beings through brain neurons.
“Avatar” tells a story of clones cultivated by human beings on Pandora Star, an extrasolar star. The clones are cultivated in greenhouses and controlled by human beings through brain neurons.
On aliens and environment:
According to chapter 289 of the “Blue Raven”, the local aliens have sky-blue skin, yellow hair, black eyes, and can be determined to be a kind of subhuman creature.
In “Avatar”, the blue aliens live in a blue star and have hexagon faces and big plaits.
On some details of imagination:
In Zhou’s novel, a doctor hypnotizes the clones and programs their experiences, and the doctor asks the clones to open their minds to release their entire memory.
“Avatar” has a similar procedure in cloning and controlling. Before leaving, they hypnotize the astronaut and extract his brainwaves.
If Zhou’s lawsuit is shown to have merit in China the probability is that Zhou would next file suit against Cameron in the United States.
Cameron has maintained throughout the media coverage of “Avatar” that he imagined and created all of the characters and scenes himself. Many have doubted the exclusivity that Cameron claims and it now appears that his reputation as a filmmaker is at stake.
