AAJ TV : Pakistan Ki Awaz

BEIJING : A Beijing court has thrown out a case filed against ‘Avatar’ director James Cameron by a Chinese man who claimed the idea for the sci-fi blockbuster had come from a novel he published online.

Zhou Shaomou had demanded a whopping eight percent of the total worldwide revenue earned by "Avatar" -- the top-grossing movie of all time, raking in more than two billion dollars since its release -- over the alleged plagiarism.

But the court dismissed the case, citing insufficient evidence, the state-run Global Times reported Monday.

Court officials declined immediate comment on the case when contacted by AFP about the report.

Zhou said the plot of "Avatar" -- the story of a paraplegic former US Marine who is sent to live with a race of blue aliens on the Earth-like moon Pandora -- closely resembled that of a novel he wrote in 1997.

The novel, "The Legend of the Blue Crow", was published on two Chinese websites in segments in 1999, the report said. "'Avatar' is a film based on my fiction but shot by James Cameron," the author said. "But he never paid me any copyright fees."

The official website for the film says Cameron first developed the idea 15 years ago -- a few years before Zhou's novel was completed.

Previous reports said Zhou had taken his complaint to several courts which refused to accept it, before seeing the case taken up by the Beijing Number One Intermediate Court.

Zhou and his lawyers were reportedly attempting to gain further evidence for a possible second attempt to sue Cameron.

The film has been wildly popular in China, quickly becoming the highest-grossing film in the country's history after its January 4 release in both 2D and 3D versions.

Authorities sparked a controversy when the 2D version was reportedly pulled from some theatres to make way for homegrown epic "Confucius", which was panned by critics.

Some Chinese have speculated authorities were nervous about the portrayal in "Avatar" of the Na'vi tribe resisting humans chasing them from their land, saying it too closely evoked a wave of unrest in China linked to land disputes.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2010