Less than a day after someone called Daniel Clowes’s attention to what seemed to be a beat-for-beat adaptation of his graphic novella Justin M. Damiano, in the form of actor Shia LaBoeuf’s short film HowardCantour.com, and the story went viral online, LaBeouf took to Twitter early this morning to apologize for the unauthorized adaptation.Stopping short of confessing to plagiarism, LaBeouf’s first tweet (which, ironically, Buzzfeed says may be partially copied and pasted from the Internet) differentiates between stealing someone else’s work and adapting it, but then admits that he failed to get any kind of authorization or to credit Clowes for adapting his comic, which LaBeouf refers to as his “inspiration.”You can see his remarks in full below:
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Copying isn’t particularly creative work. Being inspired by someone else’s idea to produce something new and different IS creative work.
— Shia LaBeouf (@thecampaignbook) December 17, 2013In my excitement and naiveté as an amateur filmmaker, I got lost in the creative process and neglected to follow proper accreditation — Shia LaBeouf (@thecampaignbook) December 17, 2013Im embarrassed that I failed to credit @danielclowes for his original graphic novella Justin M. Damiano, which served as my inspiration — Shia LaBeouf (@thecampaignbook) December 17, 2013I was truly moved by his piece of work & I knew that it would make a poignant & relevant short. I apologize to all who assumed I wrote it.
— Shia LaBeouf (@thecampaignbook) December 17, 2013I deeply regret the manner in which these events have unfolded and want @danielclowes to know that I have a great respect for his work
— Shia LaBeouf (@thecampaignbook) December 17, 2013An hour or so later, after being inundated with (largely negative) tweets in response, LaBoeuf added another, more succinct appraisal of the situation:
I f***ed up.
— Shia LaBeouf (@thecampaignbook) December 17, 2013Daniel Clowes has yet to respond.
