Avatar Director James Cameron and Disney Sued by Actress Corianka Kilcher

New York. Director of the world's highest-grossing Hollywood film 'Avatar' James Cameron and The Walt Disney Company are in legal trouble.

Actress Corianka Kilcher, who played the role of Pocahontas in the famous 2005 film 'The New World', has filed a lawsuit claiming that her facial features were stolen and used to create the main character 'Neytiri' in Avatar without her permission.

Corianka was only 14 years old when she acted with actor Colin Farrell in Terrence Malick's film. The lawsuit claims that director Cameron used her photograph as a basis to create the appearance of the character Neytiri, played by Zoe Saldana.

According to the lawsuit, Cameron stole the contours and features of Corianka's face from a photograph published in public media. He then instructed his design team to sketch the character Neytiri based on that face.

Corianka's legal representatives have accused Hollywood's most powerful filmmakers of exploiting the biological identity and cultural heritage of a minority indigenous girl without any credit or compensation, in a complaint filed in court. They claim this exploitation was done intentionally for commercial gain.

The complaint states that while the Avatar series, which earns billions of dollars, shows sympathy for the struggles of indigenous people on screen, it has been silently exploiting an actual indigenous girl behind the scenes. Cameron's company Lightstorm Entertainment and several visual effects companies have also been named as defendants in this case.

Corianka and James Cameron had a brief meeting at a charity event shortly after the release of Avatar in 2009. At that meeting, Cameron invited her to his office and gifted her a sketch of Neytiri, which he had drawn and signed himself.

Along with the sketch, Cameron also wrote a note which read, 'Neytiri's initial inspiration was a beautiful girl like you. Unfortunately, you were busy shooting another film, let's try next time.' However, despite Corianka's agents making significant efforts to get her an audition, Cameron never attempted to book her or contact her for this project.

Corianka stated that she never imagined that someone she trusted would secretly steal her facial features, incorporate them into the design process, and use them in a film without permission, calling this step excessive and very wrong. Corianka only realized her facial likeness had been stolen after watching an old interview of Cameron that went viral on social media last year.

In that interview, Cameron, holding a sketch of Neytiri, said, 'The real source for this character was a photo of a young actress named Corianka Kilcher that was published in the Los Angeles Times. Actually, it's the lower part of her face, her face was very attractive.'

Corianka has filed a lawsuit demanding royalties, compensation, a share of the profits, and a public apology for the use of her facial likeness. The first Avatar grossed $2.92 billion worldwide, while its two sequels have also earned over $1.5 billion.