Let's see the story of Avatar and Vietnam Colony (1993).
A paraplegic marine Jake is assigned, as an agent to an inter-galactic construction company, with the mission to infiltrate the the Na' vi COLONY in the planet Pandora and live among them and eventually find Intel to move them out of their homes .
A virtuous Swamy is assigned, as an agent to a multinational construction company, with the mission to infiltrate the Vietnam Colony and live among them and eventually find enough Intel to move them out of their homes.
Now this is not a copy or James Cameron pinching the 1993 Mallu Movie, as Cameron has the idea written
even before the conception of Terminator (1984), he didnt venture into it mainly because he felt the technology was inadequate at that time to make such an enormous movie, creating an open world from scratch. When he saw the character Golem in Peter Jacksons Lord of the Rings trilogy, he was satisfied with the CGI technology and started working on Avatar. Still its nice to see the Vietnam Colony concept going through the hands of James Cameron.
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(Update on Feb.10)
I am getting a lot of mails from around the world saying Avatar is based on a story from their own culture or entertainment industry.
It's no wonder that Avatar has such a common theme of a mole in hostile territory. One could even interpret Joshua in Canaan!
According to James Cameron he got the idea from every science fiction stories he'd read as a kid and acknowledged similar theme stories like Dancing with the Wolves, A Play in the Fields of the Lord, Emerald Forest and the classic Lawrence of Arabia. Speaking to Empire, Cameron said "It owes a lot to good, old-fashioned, adolescent adventure storytelling like Rudyard Kipling's The Man Who Would Be King, Lawrence Of Arabia and (Edgar Rice Burroughs' ) John Carter Of Mars."
There are broader perspectives ranging from Iraq War to the struggle against imperialism. As the theme has a simple but broadly common and "open", any views can be fitted with the story.
Now, what I personally think is, yes James Cameron most probably based Avatar from a particular science fiction story. It was Poul (not Paul) Andersons short story titled "Call Me Joe" (1957). Why I am saying it could be a copy is primarily because too many similarities that defy a weird coincidence.
Like the protagonist in the story - Ed and Jake Scully in Avatar are both paraplegics and both use genetically created artificial bodies (BLUE in colour!!!) to survive in an alien planet!!! And both characters end up empathizing and being adapted to the alien culture. So there it is it could be a copy...
I said "most probably" and "could be" because, there is still benefit of the doubt. For example Robert Silverberg sci-fi novel, Revolt on Alpha C (1955) has similar theme with lush alien rainforests and fauna, where the hero going native by empathizing with them. Whatever it is, I ended up enjoying the film and thanks to Cameron it was a brilliant movie.
Now, I would like to listen your comments about if Avatar was indeed based on other fiction or fact. Send me your comments...