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Mere hours after Fox shocked the world by announcing that director James Cameron had ended a decade of well-publicized indecision by choosing a project called Avatar as his long-awaited follow-up to Titanic, Paramount proudly revealed that it was getting into the M. Night Shyamalan business by hiring the master of gotcha! cinema to adapt a Nickelodeon TV series into a possible movie franchise. The name of this high-profile undertaking? You probably already see where this is going: Avatar: The Last Airbender. The projects have nothing in common except the small matter of their nearly identical titles, but both studios are already claiming sole ownership of the name, according to Var:

Although they may have the same name, the two projects have nothing to do with each other in terms of storylines. Cameron's is a sci-fi action-adventure that he's been working on for 11 years.

Par said it has registered the name of its project with the Motion Picture Assn. of America.

A Fox rep said, "We own the movie title 'Avatar.' There won't be another film called 'Avatar' coming from anyplace."

If this matter can't be resolved amicably and goes to some kind MPAA arbitration (or, God willing, the courts—we love a good legal pissing match between rival studios), don't be surprised to see things get personal, with Fox supporting its claim to the title by asking, "Which Avatar would the public rather see, the one utilizing entirely new special effects technology and directed by a visionary whose last film grossed more than any other in history, or one by the guy who cried when the mean lady from Disney said she didn't like his movie about the chick who lives in a swimming pool?"