Fox, James Cameron Ordered to Share Secret 'Avatar' Financials in Idea Theft Lawsuit

Cameron is working to defeat a plaintiff who allegedly pitched him in 1991 on a movie about a struggle between an evil mining conglomerate and an indigenous tribe.

About a year ago, there was a mad rush to the courthouse on the part of those who claimed a piece of James Cameron's Avatar. The 2009 film is the highest-grossing of all time with nearly $2.8 billion at the worldwide box office and has two sequels on the way. Given that Hollywood studios are sued all the time on allegations of ripping off ideas, it's hardly surprising that such an enormous hit would trigger a slew of lawsuits.

In the year since various authors staked copyright and contract claims, some plaintiffs have been frustrated in their attempts to win billions (Kelly Van, Bryan Moore, Elijah Schkeiban), but two individuals have been causing Cameron's Lightstorm Entertainment to sweat a little. The first is Eric Ryder, a former Lightstorm employee who claims to have written a story entitled "K.R.Z. 2068" that he says he shared with Cameron under an alleged implied contract. The case still is pending in Los Angeles Superior Court.

Lightstorm is attempting to defeat Morawski's lawsuit on summary judgment, but the plaintiff already has scored a bit of success, getting a California federal judge to order that Lightstorm and third party 20th Century Fox produce documents relating to potential damages -- not just a summary of net profits on the film but also profit-participation documents and other underlying agreements governing Avatar.

In his lawsuit, Morawski claims that he pitched a film project entitled Guardians of Eden, about an epic struggle taking place between evil mining interests that would destroy the planet to satisfy their greed and an indigenous tribe that lives at one with its rain forest environment.

Morawski met Cameron in 1991. The famed director admits this, saying he was interested in acquiring Morawski's artwork in connection with a then-project called Burning Chrome, based on a short story by William Gibson. Cameron purchased four items from Morawski for $4,000 and says that in 1992, he also lent the struggling artist $5,000, which allegedly was never repaid.

Regardless, the director says that what Morawski turned in to Lightstorm -- a document entitled "Conceptual Summary of Guardians of Eden -- wasn't the film Avatar, and, in an extraordinary 45-page declaration, Cameron describes how he independently came up with the hit film. (Read the entire declaration here.) It is a 50-year journey told by Cameron about his works, starting from when he was a child in the 1960s and dreamed of being a scientist to a project that he began developing in the late '70s that he says was the beginning of Avatar (as well as its sequels) to Cameron's discussions of the themes and characters of his various films over the years.

In a motion for summary judgment, the defendants say, "The incontrovertible evidence of independent creation defeats all claims."

But in a filing Thursday, Morawski's side rejects that view. According to his documents, "In Plaintiff's view, it is no coincidence that, even though those alleged prior works had been in existence for 10 or 20 years, Cameron did not write the scriptment for Avatar until a few years after Plaintiff pitched GOE to Defendants. In addition, if Defendants had in fact already created works that were similar to GOE, they would have stopped Plaintiff's pitch once the alleged similarity became apparent, and would not have offered Plaintiff a deal for GOE."

Before a judge rules on whether to throw out the lawsuit or pave the path toward trial, the two sides are in the midst of discovery.

According to the judge's notes, Morawski argued that he was entitled to damages of lost profits from Avatar, while Cameron and Fox asserted that he should only be entitled, if anything, to the market value of Guardians of Eden. The judge said he is siding with Morawski.

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EXCLUSIVE: Read James Cameron's Sworn Declaration on How He Created 'Avatar':
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/read-james-camerons-sworn-declaration-avatar-399979