I think what’s most likely is that Mr. LaBeouf wanted to be an amateur filmmaker – or even more likely, someone else decided that Mr. LaBeouf should present the appearance of wanting to be an amateur filmmaker – and quietly outsourced the entire filmmaking process to someone insufficiently trustworthy. (And then the process was quite possibly further outsourced to another party.)
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Translation: I accidentally the whole thing.
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They exchange credit for a check. A large one. Several filmmakers have spoken openly about how script doctoring has allowed them to spend a few weeks writing and then make fifty grand for the year. Do that for two or three movies and you can pretty much write full time on stuff you want to work on. All without having your name attached to something if it bombs. Ever hear of an unsuccessful William Goldman movie?
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Wouldn’t someone who worked on the production know if he actually, like, directed it?
Sure, but we haven’t heard from anyone who worked on the production yet. And maybe they’ve all been told to keep quiet.
Or maybe he really is every bit a brazen plagiarist as he appears to be, and Occam’s Razor triumphs over Hanlon’s.
Wouldn’t Clowes need something more than “credit”? I assume LaBeouf means something more like attribution, rather than payment, when he uses that word. Is it even legal to use a comic book as “inspiration” in this way?
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Well, yes, I’m sure it pays well, but if that film would happen to win an Oscar for the screenplay, it might not go to the person who was primarily responsible for that. (I don’t know if that’s ever happened, but it certainly could.)
Oh, it certainly has. It’s openly acknowledged that Good Will Hunting was nearly scrapped and reworked like crazyville. John Sayles has made a really good living as a script doctor but has only been nominated for two Oscars for his writing.
I mean, that’s the deal, you take the sure money, keep your trap shut, you’ll get more sure money and possibly a chance to direct your own work.
eh. Worthwhile sacrifice. I mean, hell, you can’t even eat Oscars. They aren’t really good for much, are they? Meanwhile, making piles of cash and getting a reputation for your abilities among the people who actually matter… THAT is valuable…
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To be frank, I don’t care about Mr. Clowes’s work (Ghost World in particular) and all that I think that Shia did was most likely a homage that went badly, and he got caught. Let’s just accept his apology without insinuating what he’s like to people who work in the service industry (or any other grievance) and move on.
“Hey man I got the script from the Jump Starter Fantagraphics just had. I just pledged 50 bucks.”
An homage would require frank acknowledgement. Even as simple as “Special thanks to Daniel Clowes” and then put that in a title card (he can now even cut and paste it from this post!).
Lifting direct text is not an homage. It is plagiarism and lazy filmmaking, both of which are frowned upon in a world that has better people wiling to do more for less at every step of the way. He’ll be self-financing his own work for a very long time as a result of these actions.
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I hope Daniel Clowes cites you as the source for his upcoming comic “The homage that went badly”. Great stuff. Keep it up.
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an homage that he stated was an original work? how long have you worked for shia?
shia very well thought he could get away with it, because hollywood is all about stealing, but as diablo cody tweeted, most do it subtly
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adaptations arent lazy…they are done all the time. but usually the author is paid and credited
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