Ryder V. Lightstorm Entertainment, Inc
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Ryder v. Lightstorm Entertainment, Inc. Court of Appeal of California, Second Appellate District, Division Eight March 25, 2016, Opinion Filed B254922 Reporter 246 Cal. App. 4th 1064 *; 201 Cal. Rptr. 3d 110 **; 2016 Cal. App. LEXIS 318 *** a triable issue of [***2] material fact. Finally, in light of ERIC RYDER, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. LIGHTSTORM those conclusions, his appeal of the court's denial of his ENTERTAINMENT, INC., et al., Defendants and motion for discovery sanctions is moot. We therefore Respondents. affirm. Subsequent History: [***1] The Publication Status of FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND this Document has been Changed by the Court from Unpublished to Published April 22, 2016. 1. Cameron's Avatar Review denied by Ryder v. Lightstorm Entm't, 2016 Cal. LEXIS 4813 (Cal., July 13, 2016) Released in 2009, Avatar is a science fiction film written and directed by Cameron. Set in the future on Pandora, Prior History: APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior a moon of a fictional gas giant planet, it explores a world Court of Los Angeles County, No. BC474876, Alan S. of flying mountains and lush bioluminescent rain forests Rosenfield and Susan Bryant-Deason, Judges. teeming with exotic flora and fauna unlike anything on Earth. An indigenous species of humanoids called Na'vi Disposition: Affirmed. live there—10-foot-tall, blue-skinned, long-tailed, preternaturally strong beings living in harmony with their Counsel: Rincon Venture Law Group, K. Andrew Kent, natural [**113] surroundings and worshipping their deity Gregory N. Albright; King, Cheng & Miller, James W. Eywa. Pandora is also occupied by humans affiliated Colbert III and David P. King for Plaintiff and Appellant. with the “Resources Development Administration,” or RDA, and its “Sec-Ops” security force, which mines a Mitchell, Silberberg & Knupp, Robert H. Rotstein, Aaron valuable mineral called “unobtainium” used on Earth. M. Wais and Emily F. Evitt for Defendants and The film's title refers to genetically engineered “avatar” Respondents. bodies resembling Na'vi that human scientists control via a mental link and use to interact with the native Judges: Opinion by Flier, J., with Bigelow, P. J., and Na'vi. Grimes, J., concurring. The film begins as Jake Sully, a 22-year-old paraplegic Opinion by: Flier, J. ex-Marine, is brought to Pandora to replace his deceased [***3] twin brother as an avatar operator. Opinion Upon arriving, he meets Colonel Miles Quaritch, the imposing head of Sec-Ops, and Dr. Grace Augustine, [**112] FLIER, J.—In this idea submission case, plaintiff head of the avatar program, among others. Jake begins Eric Ryder challenges the trial court's grant of summary training as an avatar operator, joyfully discovering his judgment to defendants James Cameron and [*1067] avatar allows him to experience walking again. Lightstorm Entertainment, Inc. (Lightstorm), on claims Meanwhile, Quaritch recruits Jake to secretly provide that defendants fraudulently expressed interest in intelligence on the Na'vi in exchange for expensive developing Ryder's science fiction story KRZ 2068 and surgery to restore the use of his legs once back on used parts of that story in Cameron's 2009 film Avatar Earth. (20th Century Fox). As we explain, Ryder's contract and While out in the wilds of Pandora in his avatar form, fiduciary duty claims fail because we find no similarity Jake gets separated from his group when he is attacked between the projects as a matter of law. Ryder's fraud by a panther-like predator, barely escaping by jumping claims fail because he has not offered evidence raising 246 Cal. App. 4th 1064, *1067; 201 Cal. Rptr. 3d 110, **113; 2016 Cal. App. LEXIS 318, ***3 into a rushing waterfall. As night falls, Neytiri, a Na'vi describes as a “highly detailed script-length treatment female, finds him and is about to shoot him when a that, like a treatment, was in a narrative rather than jellyfish-like “woodsprite” lands on her arrow. She dialogue form, and laid out the story, characters, setting interprets that as a sign from Eywa and spares his life. and many of the visual images for Avatar in great Later that night, she saves Jake when he is attacked by detail.” Starting in 1996, Cameron circulated the a pack of “viperwolves.” She refuses to bring him back scriptment to generate interest, and between 1995 and to her village until woodsprites land all over his body. 1997, he began to explore the technology necessary to She then brings him back to the gigantic make Avatar. By 1997, however, he decided not to “Hometree” [*1068] where her clan lives and where her move forward with the film because the technology was mother, the clan's spiritual leader, tells her to train him in not [***6] sufficiently developed. In 2005, Cameron the ways of the Na'vi. decided the technology was available to make Avatar, so he revisited the project. Between December 2005 In his avatar form, [***4] Jake trains to become a Na'vi and May 2006, he wrote the first draft of the screenplay. warrior, while in his human form he continues to provide Principal photography began in April 2007. Both before intelligence to Quaritch. He also chronicles his and during filming, Cameron rewrote and refined the experiences with the Na'vi through entries in a video screenplay, [*1069] although he “always remained true diary. Eventually he falls in love with Neytiri and the to [his] original vision of Avatar as expressed in the Na'vi, which undermines his loyalty to Quaritch and the scriptment.” RDA. When he passes all the Na'vi tests, he is accepted into the clan, and he and Neytiri choose each other as 2. Ryder's KRZ lifelong mates. At that point, Jake's allegiance fully switches from the RDA to the Na'vi. Between 1996 and 1998, Ryder, a 3-D computer animator, wrote a science fiction short story entitled When Jake cannot convince the Na'vi to leave KRZ 2068 (KRZ) based on Joseph Conrad's classic Hometree at the request of the RDA, which wants to novel Heart of Darkness (1899). In 1998, Ryder and his mine the unobtainium at the site, Quaritch leads his wife created a business proposal surrounding KRZ to forces into an attack on the Na'vi and Hometree. The finance the project as a 3-D animated film for Na'vi are defeated, Hometree is destroyed, and Jake's distribution via the Internet, television, or through DVD secret deal with Quaritch is exposed to Neytiri and the and video sales. As relevant here, the proposal had a clan. Although Quaritch holds Jake and Grace prisoner, “Notice to Recipients” that stated the proposal was they manage to escape. When Grace is mortally being “delivered to a limited number of parties for wounded in the ensuing shootout, the Na'vi try to save informational purposes only. By your receipt of this her by transferring her consciousness into her avatar document, you agree that (i) this Proposal and its body, but they are too late. She dies. contents are confidential; (ii) neither you, nor any person or entity with which you are associated, nor any of their Once again linked with his avatar, Jake regains the … respective agents, representatives [***7] or Na'vi's trust by taming a legendary flying dinosaur-like employees will copy, reproduce, or distribute to others creature and rallies thousands [***5] of other Na'vi this Proposal, in whole or in part, at any time without the warriors from neighboring clans to fight Quaritch and prior written consent of Channel Modus;[1] (iii) you and Sec-Ops. Jake leads the Na'vi into battle. When it they will keep permanently confidential all information seems the Na'vi will be defeated, the Pandoran wildlife contained herein not already in the public domain; and join the fight and overwhelm the Sec-Ops soldiers. Jake (iv) you and they will use this Proposal for the sole and Neytiri enter a final battle against Quaritch, who purpose for which it is intended and not in any manner dons a robotic suit. In human form, Jake becomes detrimental to the interests of Channel Modus or the exposed to deadly Pandoran air, and Neytiri kills respective partners, advisors, or retainees.” Quaritch to save him. In the final scene, Jake undergoes the same Na'vi ritual used to try to save Grace, but this In early 1999, Ryder sent the KRZ story and proposal to time it works—Jake's consciousness is permanently Andrew Wald, a movie producer and friend of his father- transferred into his avatar body and he leaves his in-law. Wald believed KRZ had potential as a feature human form behind. film and agreed to help Ryder get it made into a movie. [**114] Cameron originally conceived of the story in 1995 in a detailed 102-page “scriptment,” which he [1] Ryder and his wife did business as Channel Modus. 246 Cal. App. 4th 1064, *1069; 201 Cal. Rptr. 3d 110, **114; 2016 Cal. App. LEXIS 318, ***7 In early 2000, Wald contacted a development executive to sell KRZ. Sanders left Lightstorm in March 2001 and at Lightstorm, Jay Sanders, about KRZ, and he, Ryder, took his KRZ file with him. He joined Ryder, Wald, Sanders, and another independent producer, Toni Hazeldine, and Baffo in seeking to sell KRZ elsewhere. Baffo, met at the Lightstorm offices in February 2000. Hazeldine wrote two drafts of a screenplay for KRZ, Wald provided Sanders a copy of the KRZ story, and, which the group submitted to various studios and according to Ryder, the proposal.2 At this meeting directors without success. In 2004, Hazeldine [***10] Sanders told Ryder “how unique and really cool he retitled KRZ as The Adjuster and resubmitted it to thought the KRZ story was, that it presented an Lightstorm, which again passed.