Trouble is brewing for Disney and James Cameron, especially when it comes to Avatar. There’s a fresh lawsuit in the making that involves both the distribution company and the director being sued over serious allegations, and here’s what we know so far!
Disney and James Cameron face a lawsuit over Avatar
As reported by Variety, James Cameron and Walt Disney Company are being sued by Q’orianka Kilcher. The actress filed a case against the company and Cameron over their unlawful use of her facial features for the film.
She claimed that Cameron used her facial features from a photograph and set it as a base for Neytiri’s character. He then directed his design team to work on it.
There is truth to it as Cameron himself admitted to this in a video published by Konbini, where he said, “The actual source of this was a photograph that was in the L.A Times as part of the promotion for The New World. There’s a young actress named Koryanka Kilcher who played Pocahontas in The New World. She had a very interesting face, and I wound up meeting her years later, and I gave her a signed print of this [prototype photo].“
Kilcher claimed that her facial features were used in an unauthorized manner, and neither was she paid nor credited in any way for the movie. Variety’s report also confirms that the filed report states that the plaintiff (Kilcher) did not consent to the Director’s usage of her face in any manner.
Kilcher also revealed how this act was a complete betrayal in her perspective, saying, “I never imagined that someone I trusted would systematically use my face as part of an elaborate design process and integrate it into a production pipeline without my knowledge or consent. That crosses a major line. This act is deeply wrong.”
Her lawyers deemed the whole act as theft, and the actress also named the design companies and motion picture companies involved in the project as a part of the lawsuit.
Cameron and Disney, as of yet, have not made any statements regarding this matter.
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