This guy. Love him or hate him, Shia LaBeouf does what he wants to do when he wants to do it.
You cannot argue with the talent of LaBeouf. You cannot argue with the charm of LaBeouf. You can, however, argue with the understanding of LaBeouf. It has become obvious that he long ago subscribed to the life philosophy: it’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission.
The Transformers star was recently called-out by cartoonist and screenwriter, Daniel Clowes, whose popular, graphic short story, Justin M. Damiano, enjoyed an impressive circulation as part of the collaborative, fictional effort, The Book of Other People in 2008. It seems LaBeouf was quite inspired by the story. So inspired that he ripped it off without permission, made a short film with incredible similarities, premiered it at Cannes Film Festival in 2012 and never offered due credit to Clowes… for anything!
No stink was made about the stark similarities between the short story and the short film, until it was released online Monday. After LaBeouf was confronted, he openly admitted that “Damiano” was his inspiration for the film, HowardCantour.com, and he went on to offer an apology via Twitter. His final statement being “I f***ed up.”
He then quickly put his virtual foot back in his virtual mouth, when he tweeted a quote from Yahoo! Answers, and offered it up as an excellent example of his intent. And it being on Yahoo! Answers and all, LaBeouf must have assumed it was “free use” material. Sweet mercy. This guy.
If you want visual confirmation of what you’ve just read, enjoy the video.