It was the Strugatskys who came up with the planet Pandora - the same name chosen by Cameron for the similarly green and lushly forested planet used as the spectacular backdrop to Avatar.

People in Garoowe, a town south of Boosaaso, describe a certain high-rolling pirate swagger.

But the film director James Cameron was facing claims today that his 3d blockbuster Avatar owes an unacknowledged debt to the popular Soviet fantasy writers Arkady and Boris Strugatsky.