Cameron Being Sued Over T2 Idea!

An Australian couple can proceed with a lawsuit alleging James Cameron stole their shape-shifting creature idea and used it in the movie "T2: Judgment Day," a federal appeals panel ruled Monday.

Filia and Constantin Kourtis claim the director infringed on a copyright for a 1987 film treatment and a later screenplay, both of which center on a character that is half-man, half-bull and can transform itself into various human and inanimate forms.

The couple paid a writer to create a screenplay for their project, which they titled "Minotaur." It was shopped to an agent at International Creative Management, who told the Kourtises he would share the materials with Cameron, Monday's ruling states.

Cameron did not agree to produce the project.

Instead, the couple claim their idea showed up in the form of the morphing creature that Arnold Schwarzenegger's character battles in the "Terminator" sequel, which was released in 1991.

Terminator 2: Judgment Day starred Schwarzenegger as a time-travelling robot who battles with a liquid metal machine, played by Robert Patrick.

A Los Angeles federal judge had ruled that the Kourtises were barred from suing Cameron because the screenwriter they hired, William Green, had already sued over the same issue and lost.

But in Monday's ruling, the three-judge appellate panel found unanimously that the Kourtises should be allowed to have their own day in court.

The panel found that the Kourtises were not required to join their case to Green's lawsuit, and that "they are free to pursue their copyright infringement claim in this suit because they were neither parties to the Green case nor in privity with a party."

Global Arnold Staff

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