A Beijing court has accepted a Chinese writer's plagiarism lawsuit against U.S. director James Cameron whom he claimed had stolen ideas for the hit sci-fi film "Avatar" from his 1997 fiction.
Zhou Shaomou , the general manager of a Beijing-based hi-tech business, said he spent more than seven years writing Tale of the Blue Crows, a novel which recounts the epic journey of six astronauts to a distant planet, home to a race of blue-skinned beings.
He said 80 percent of the plot and key elements of the movie Avatar are similar to his story, China Daily reported.
The Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court accepted Zhou Shaomou's lawsuit yesterday. Zhou tried to file a suit in March but the court said he had insufficient evidence. He wanted 1 billion yuan ($147.7 million) in compensation, the report said.
He is also scheduled to file a similar lawsuit with a U.S. court.
A staff member with 20th Century Fox's Greater China Region, Avatar's distributor, told Beijing News earlier that the outline for Avatar was in place as early as 1995. Zhou's work was said to have been written in 1997, which the staff said means copyright infringement was impossible.
"Avatar" has taken more than $2 billion at the box office worldwide since it was released late last year, becoming the best selling movie in cinema history. In China, it earned 1.3 billion yuan.
Coincidently, the Beijing court also accepted another case recently against Avatar.
He Dexiang, a Beijing resident, claimed Cameron's movie was based on his 2003 script and asked for an apology and compensation, according to Mirror Evening News.
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