And Here Come The Lawsuits From People Who Claim James Cameron Ripped Them Off With Avatar
from the get-in-line dept
I saw Avatar with a friend who didn't know much about the movie heading in, and asked me what it was about -- so I gave her the succinct summary I'd heard from a few others as well: "It's Dances With Wolves with blue people." Of course, while many people have made similar statements, it's also been popular to compare the movie to Pocohantas. However, that was just the start. A little while ago, the site io9 put together an amazing look at the many, many, many different movies/books/stories/artwork that Avatar has been accused of "ripping off."And, of course, with such a list, you'd have to expect lawsuits -- and they're starting up. A guy in China sued for $146 million, claiming that his online novel was the inspiration. That suit was quickly dismissed. But fear not, now some restaurant owner is claiming that his unmade screenplay was the real inspiration and has sued James Cameron and Twentieth Century Fox.
Or, perhaps, this is a classical story that's been told hundreds of times before in various formats.
As with almost every lawsuit like this, it will almost certainly get dismissed quickly. However, this happens all the time with blockbuster books and movies (just look at how many times JK Rowling has been accused of "ripping off" Harry Potter, or Dan Brown accused of "ripping off" The Da Vinci Code). At some point there should be sanctions against these sorts of bogus lawsuits. In many cases, it seems clear that the people suing see it more as a publicity stunt to get press attention for their book or movie or whatever (hence the reason we're not naming the individuals or their works in this post). In the meantime, though, is anyone taking bets on who's next to sue?
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Hmm...
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Re: Hmm...
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or the Boston "Blue Men"...
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Seriously though, part of screenwriting is the concept that there are 7 story archetypes and pretty much all films can be categorized as such. I think Avatar would fall under the Overcoming the Monster archetype.
http://writingforstagescreen.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_seven_basic_plots
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blue beings
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The basic idea is pretty old to begin with.
To which I reply "You can't copyright a story idea." And Poul's story is a lot better than the movie anyway, since it had a plot.
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Re: The basic idea is pretty old to begin with.
I think Avatar's generic and cliched script is what makes it similar to most other stories in existence. It was trite, predictable, unsurprising, and with plot elements that seem to have come right out of a Make-A-Script automation program.
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Re: Ferngully
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Tarzan?
But even Dances with Wolves was based on a number of previous works too.
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I thought it was a World of Warcraft movie...
Once he reaches honored status, he is offered a quest which gives him his ground mount. Completing ground mount quest opens new dailies. After grinding those, he reaches revered and he must travel to Nagrand(!) to the floating rocks there and complete a quest for his flying mount. After some more daily quest grinding he reaches exalted and is accepted as a member of the faction. The most important faction reward is that the Epic Flight quest chain is unlocked, in which is he awarded a bigger, badder, faster, epic flying mount.
Finally he grows tired of playing a human warrior and pays Blizzard to change his race permanently to draenei. During the change, of course, his character is unavailable for play until the process is complete.
Blizzard should sue! Seems pretty cut and dried to me. Or maybe I just play too much.
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Re: I thought it was a World of Warcraft movie...
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Re: I thought it was a World of Warcraft movie...
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Re: I thought it was a World of Warcraft movie...
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we should have the right to
We will need to begin hiring more nurses and doctors and thus create a new economy to replace need for lawyers.
this industry will be known as BATS ( Boy Areyou That Stupid )
repeat offenders will be sent to the lead pipe organization to get one more wack before being removed entirely form the gene pool.
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A Writer's Perspective
There's no such thing as a truly original story; every writer takes inspiration from things they've seen or read elsewhere, but remixed and rearranged with the aim of keeping people from naming all your sources of inspiration until at least halfway through. If it's obvious by end of the first chapter/pilot episode/first twenty minutes of the film, you need to level up some; if it's obvious before that point you're not even making an effort to do anything transformative, and other, less lazy writers will be annoyed by it. If you make ridiculous amounts of money anyway we will be even more annoyed. With some justification, in my humble opinion.
But, and I cannot emphasise this enough, a world in which it is possible to sue someone for annoying you is not a world that anyone sane wants to live in.
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lies
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Re: lies
Yes, all those other movies also had terrible plots. That doesn't mean Avatar didn't have one as well.
Yesterday I read Lucius Shepard's blistering review of movies released in 2003 (which included monsters like the last 2 Matrix movies), and it feels even more relevant today.
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Re: lies
JUGHEAD: Sorry, I got confused, because I have a feeling the next little while is going to be about wandering around a jungle being chased by one ridiculously hostile creature after another. Is there anything in this movie that isn't derived from other movies?
RED-SHIRT: I keep it straight by remembering that the animals here are way more colourful.
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Re: lies
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People like to dismiss lazy scriptwriting with "well, what do you expect?". I expect a better script, because it is just not that hard to do. It is not difficult to shore up the glaring inconsistencies and nonsense in Avatar's plot. The thing reads like it was written by an 8-year old (actually the premise is something Cameron has wanted to do since he was young). As someone in that thread I linked mentioned, a sensible plot is not an unreachable ideal, it is a starting point.
Ask yourself this: why would you put SO much effort into the graphics of a movie, and deliver it with such an obviously terrible script? It's like having a hamburger with an incredible scrumptious bun, and a rotted meat patty.
I could go on and on but others have already said it better in so many places. Great Sci-Fi concepts weren't explored. Plot threads went nowhere. Characters were irrelevant. Moral actions had no context and were never explored. Opportunities for dramatic tension were relentlessly ignored. Even the fact that the hero was in a wheelchair didn't actually matter at all in the movie.
It's just a movie with incredibly lavish graphics, and a remarkably terrible plot.
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Re: lies
It wasn't 2 1/2 hours of nothing. It was 2 1/2 hours of CGI.
But you're right about one thing -- it was better than Transformers 2 and Star Trek. That's certainly damning with faint praise, though.
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I mean, seriously...
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Re:
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Presumably, the in-story justification is that when someone figured out this new metal's properties, some major engineering project had found their unobtanium and the nickname stuck. They might have run with "adamantine" if they wouldn't inevitably be accused of ripping off The X-Men.
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how 'bout the military
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Who wrote Avatar?
--
wrote: OF LOVE B0030MIG24 Hillary's Angel B002TSB0ZU
Invented "Inclusive."
Proposed mec. drug trials ($100-200 million/yr to USF), LightsOnTampa! Floating Riverwalk WaterTaxi Crosstown Xway bridge to StPete w/rail link&airport for MacDillAFB.
Found pheromone cure for crime, addiction & perversion
Proposed GA's HOPE ScholarshipProgram (BrightFutures).
Poems for DeadPoetsSociety &sax solo, lyrics for "Light&Day" Spotless Mind
Filming Star Wars was my idea
Stories,characters,speeches & concepts (as TheForce,TheJedi,TheCode)AFewGoodMen,Aladdin,Alexander,AmericanBeauty,AmericanPresident,Apocalypto,A rmageddon,AustinPowers,Avatar,TheAviator,BacktotheFuture,Bandits,Batman,BeautifulMind,BenjaminButton ,BigFish,BigLabowski,BourneIdentity(myhandprint),Braveheart,ABronxTale,BruceAlmighty,CastAway,CatchM eifYouCan,CharlieandtheChocolateFactory,ChroniclesofNarnia,CityofAngels,CrouchingTigerHiddenDragon,D aVinciCode,TheDayAfterTomorrow,DeepImpact,Elf,EnemyoftheState,EternalSunshineoftheSpotlessMind,Findi ngNemo,ForrestGump,GalaxyQuest,Gattaca,Gladiator,GreenMile,GoodWillHunting,Hellboy,Hook,Identity,Ind ependenceDay,IngloriousBasterds,IRobot,TheIsland,Jaws(styrofoamcup),JourneytotheCenteroftheEarth,Jun o,LemonySnicket,LOR,LostinTranslation,TheMask,TheMatrix,MeettheParents,TheMexican,MinorityReport,Mun ich,MysticRiver,MysticPizza,NationalTreasure,NeverBeenKissed,NightattheMuseum,PassionoftheChrist,The Patriot,PiratesoftheCaribbean,PrincessFrog,RaidersoftheLostArk,RemembertheTitans,RoadtoPerdition,Run awayBride,SavingPrivateRyan,Schindler'sList,ShawshankRedeption,Shrek,Signs,SimpsonsMovie,6thSense,Sl eepyHollow,SomethingAboutMary,SpaceCowboys,Spiderman,TheTerminal,300,Titanic,Troy,TrumanShow,Unbreak able,VforVendetta,VanillaSky,TheVillage,WagtheDog,WaroftheWorlds,WeddingCrashers,WhatWomenWant,WhatL iesBeneath,WildWildWest.MorningEdition,Simpsons,TheVisitor,TouchedbyanAngel,Bones,Justice,House,Lost ,Numbers,Kings,Fringe
stophurricanes3ways,artificialgills,proteinsuperconductor
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Flattened by Wall of Text
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2) Copyright does not include similar stories, it only precludes exact copies.
3) Upon what is their complaint based ?
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The innovation corallary to Sturgeon's Law
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you may not be interested but i am, Im sure other blogs actually list thier sources and explain in detail their position, seems like you got tired and didnt want to finish your article
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you may not be interested but i am, Im sure other blogs actually list thier sources and explain in detail their position, seems like you got tired and didnt want to finish your article
Heh. I explained clearly why I did not want to do that. Not because I "wasn't interested" but because I didn't want to give them free advertising, which is what their lawsuits are about. If you want to find the names of the books and the authors, there's some blue text, which is something called a link. You can click on it and magically the answers will appear.
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what so now you dont link to the stories you leach from?
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Did you just leave your brain at the door or something? you didn't even finish the sentence. Mike put the link to the io9 article in the last part of the sentence that said "the many, many, many different movies/books/stories/artwork that Avatar has been accused of "ripping off." "
perhaps you should get your eyes or your brain checked.
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See the blue text? It's called a link. Try clicking it.
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Caboose where are you?
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Avatar
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But, so what? Was the creator of Firekind at all damaged by this? No. If anything he's getting some free publicity and sympathy from his friends. The world got a great visual movie to enjoy, the studios made a lot of money, nobody was hurt, everybody wins. Hell, if Cameron ripped off ideas from other people he probably doesn't even remember it. The human mind is funny that way.
This whole obsession with who ripped off who is ridiculous. Some of the most beloved works of art are shameless regurgitations of what has come before. Shakespeare, anyone?
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