Another Avatar court victory for James Cameron

James Cameron has scored another Avatar legal victory – a Canadian man who accused the director of stealing the idea for the blockbuster has dropped his lawsuit. Emil Malak became the first in a string of plaintiffs to take the Titanic filmmaker to court in 2010 after claiming the plot for the 2009 sci-fi epic featured striking similarities to his 1998 screenplay for Terra Incognita, which he had sent to a number of movie studios, including Cameron’s Lightstorm Entertainment.
However, Malak, who had sued for damages of $100 million (£62.5 million), has since come to the conclusion that Avatar wasn’t a rip-off of his work.
A statement released by studio executives 20th Century Fox reads: “After the first day of hearing on Cameron’s motion for summary judgment, Malak approached Cameron’s counsel and said he no longer wanted to pursue his claim.”
The news emerges just two months after a third such plagiarism lawsuit against Cameron was dismissed in a Maryland court.
Following that case dismissal in January (14), Cameron issued a statement in which he condemned “fortune hunting plaintiffs” for attempting to cash in on the huge success of his film.
Avatar raked in $2.78 billion worldwide following its release in 2009 and became the highest-grossing film of all time.