James Cameron Fights for 'Real-Life' Na'vi in Brazil

For indigenous groups in the Amazon, the plot of Avatar is all too familiar, the movie's director says. James Cameron is helping Indian groups and environmentalists battle a hydroelectric plant on Brazil's Xingu River. "I'm drawn into a situation where a real-life Avatar confrontation is in progress," he tells the Telegraph. "What's happening in Avatar is happening in Brazil."

Brazil's president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, says the project is needed to create energy. Critics claim the $11 billion hydroelectric dam—which would be the world's third largest—will wreak havoc on the environment and the local economy. Brazil, Cameron says, must follow the lesson of Avatar: "We need to change the way we live," he tells the AP. "And the way we value the natural world." (More Brazil stories.)