Shia Labœuf Bourguignon made his latest directorial offering public yesterday with
the Vimeo premiered short HowardCantour.com, an inspired and wholly innovative artwork
originally created by
Ghost World graphic novelist
Daniel Clowes, whose 2007 comic
Justin M. Damiano Shia LaBeouf directly appropriated unauthorised and uncredited in its entirety, prompting
accusations of a “shameless theft!” and “a complete rip-off!” from Clowes’ editor and publisher
Fantagraphics and invoking
the boundless scorn of The Internet.
Per Buzzfeed, with whom Clowes spoke following the revelation: “The first I ever heard of the film was this morning when someone sent me a link. I’ve never spoken to or met Mr. LaBeouf. I’ve never even seen one of his films that I can recall — and I was shocked, to say the least, when I saw that he took the script and even many of the visuals from a very personal story I did six or seven years ago and passed it off as his own work. I actually can’t imagine what was going through his mind.”
Not much apparently. This is the second time
this year LaBeouf has faced accusations of plagiarism. Following a dispute with
Alec Baldwin in February, LaBeouf sent his theatrical co-star an apologetic email
lifted in parts from an Esquire article and soon after leaked online. Shia, mate, this doesn’t look good; that’s two strikes.
LaBoeuf overnight issued a series of tweets apologising for his shamelessly-inspired shot-for-frame remake, which made its festival debut at Cannes last year and has since been removed from Vimeo [you can
watch it over at Buzzfeed, accompanied by an excerpt from the first page Clowes’ graphic novel; the similarities are astonishing].
“Merely copying isn’t particularly creative work, though it’s useful as training and practice. Being inspired by someone else’s idea to produce something new and different IS creative work, and it may even revolutionalize [sic] the “stolen” concept.”
Third time’s a charm, LaDouche.
Photo: Andrew Rentz via Getty
