6 hours ago

Paul Glynn Culture reporter

New Line Cinema via Alamy

Q'orianka Kilcher played Pocahontas in Terrence Malick's 2005 film The New World

Film-maker James Cameron and Disney are being sued by an actress who has accused the director of using her ​likeness as the basis for one of the lead characters in his hit film series Avatar.

German-born US actress Q'orianka Kilcher, who is of indigenous Peruvian descent, alleges that in 2005 - when she was 14 - Cameron "extracted her facial features" from a photograph of her portraying Pocahontas in another film, The New World.

In court documents filed on Tuesday in California, her team claimed Cameron "directed his design team to use it as the foundation for the character of Neytiri", depicted on screen by Zoe Saldaña.

BBC News has contacted Cameron and Disney for a comment.

Disney/PA

An image from the film poster of Avatar: The Way of the Water, showing the character Neytiri (left)

The Avatar movies contain a hybrid of live-action performances mixed…