Lawsuits and love stories: The many times James Cameron has been sued for copyright infringement
It would be ridiculous to even try and deny that James Cameron is one of the most important figures in cinema and has been for a long time, but it’s a lot easier to state a case for the trailblazing filmmaker to be a million miles away from the most original.
In terms of the visual and technological advances he’s cultivated, curated, and pioneered, he’s spent decades pushing the medium forward. From the groundbreaking CGI of The Abyss to Hollywood’s first-ever $100million production in Terminator 2: Judgement Day, he’s always been making movies on an unprecedented scale.
Titanic and Avatar both achieved a huge number of firsts, and the results can’t be argued with. Simply by looking at the list of highest-grossing movies ever made, it’s easy to see why he’s so beloved by Hollywood. Of the top four, three of them were directed by Cameron, and it would be unwise to bet against him troubling the upper echelons of those rankings at least once more as he continues dedicating his entire on-screen career to nothing but Avatar sequels.
While it’s become common practice to blast the first instalment in his Pandora-set sci-fi saga for telling a story that exists somewhere between Pocahontas, FernGully, and Dances with Wolves, nobody – as of yet, anyway – has stepped forward to mount a legal challenge over any of the associated screenplays. However, that hasn’t always been the case with Cameron’s filmography.
Cameron claimed the seed that became The Terminator was born from a fever dream he had, but Harlan Ellison still threatened to sue for copyright infringement due to the similarities to his short story Soldier. It didn’t go to court, but the author was nonetheless compensated as part of a settlement and subsequently credited on later versions of the sci-fi classic. He was also sued by Sophia Stewart – as was The Matrix – but that particular case was dismissed.
Titanic was sued by Stephen Cummings, who claimed Cameron had stolen the story of his family’s history with the titular ship when creating the central narrative between Leonardo DiCaprio’s Jack and Kate Winslet’s Rose. He was also hit with legal action from a photographer who maintained a photoshoot had been liberally ripped off for the scene where Rose is sketched in the nude, with both being settled out of court.
Avatar may not have been sued for its storyline by the creators of films that actually existed, but it was for screenplays that never ended up being produced. Bryan Moore filed a billion-dollar copyright claim under the belief Cameron had cribbed from his screenplays for Aquatica and The Pollination, while Gerald Morawski sued under the impression his artwork created for a project titled Guardians of Eden had been repurposed without permission, with Eric Ryder getting in on the act by alleging his pitch for “environmentally-themed 3D epic” K.R.Z. 2068 had several elements suspiciously similar to the movie.
Cameron was declared victorious on all three counts, leading the Academy Award-winning director to issue a statement to The Hollywood Reporter decrying the “cottage industry” of “fortune-hunting plaintiffs seeking to strike it rich” by claiming ownership of Avatar. Yet, the recurring theme is even applied to his work on the small screen.
The Jessica Alba-starring Dark Angel was sued for plagiarism by Carlos Trillo and Carlos Meglia, who accused the episodic sci-fi drama of stealing the entire plot and several recognisable elements from their comic book Cybersix. It was eventually dropped after the creator cited a lack of funding as their reason to bow out, meaning it was never proven definitively or otherwise whether or not they had a solid case.
That’s nothing if not a curious pattern, but with the sole exception of The Terminator, Cameron has never been found guilty of stealing intellectual property, even if it seems to happen an awful lot.
