You know it’s a seriously slow news week when a vague threat from the producers of a film no one saw earns more than one line of traction. Movieline got a press release last night from reps for Fathom Studios, which produced the barely-seen animated film Delgo. The Na’vi aliens in Avatar have earned some unkind comparisons to Delgo’s folk, and evidently all the jokes (they were jokes!) got the studio to thinking about their legal possibilities. Choice quotes after the break.

The release says:

From what we have seen, we are amazed by the visual similarities between the two films and we are reviewing what legal options may be available to us. Delgo is an independent film that took over a decade from conception to release. The initial proof-of-concept was available on Delgo.com in 1998 with work-in-progress from the feature production accessible via the website’s Digital Dailies since 2000. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Avatar began production in 2006 after a rewrite of the script.

OK, that’s probably enough of that. While it would be fun to see how this actually plays out, one has to expect that this is nothing more than a way to keep Delgo in the press for another minute. And look, because it’s a funny joke, it’s working! Good thing there’s no big superhero movie news this week. (Also: good thing the Na’vi can’t teleport, or Marvel would be in on this, too.)

And, as Movieline points out, Fox, the distributor for Avatar, is also distributing Delgo on DVD. Can’t imagine they’re too upset to have all of these Delgo references flying around in the press over the last week (More free press for everyone!). More people have probably seen Delgo since the Avatar trailer debuted than saw it in the months prior. I’m still not one of them, however, and don’t expect to be. I could barely even stomach the trailer, so I haven’t thought much about any possible Avatar connection. I know some of you already have in comments on other pieces, and feel free to continue the unkind comparisons below.

Here’s the trailer for Delgo. I’ll assume you’ve already seen the one for Avatar.