Hollywood director James Cameron and Disney have been sued by actress Koorianka Kilcher. His complaint is that his face has been used without permission in the design of the face of a character in the popular film series ‘Avatar’.
Kilcher claims in the suit that the face design of Neytiri, the navel character of ‘Avatar’, was inspired by an old photo of her in 2005 (when she was a teenager). According to him, Cameron used the facial structure of the character directly from the film and later realized it through 3D design and sculpture.
According to the complaint, he found out much later, when Cameron admitted in an interview that Kilcher’s face was used as inspiration for the character’s design.
This use was without permission, consent or compensation and was a violation of privacy rights and the use of digital likeness, the lawsuit said. Kilcher sought legal remedies, including damages.
Notably, the ‘Avatar’ series has done billions of dollars worldwide and the movie’s character Neytiri is based on the performance capture of popular actress Zoe Saldana.
In this incident, the discussion of “likeness rights” and the ethics of using digital images has started again in Hollywood.
