OH SHIA, SHIA, Shia. Whatever have you done now?
Transformers actor Shia LaBeouf posted his critically acclaimed short film HowardCantour.com online yesterday.
The film follows film critic Howard Cantour as he grows increasingly bitter about how the internet has changed his profession.
Almost immediately, some viewers began to notice similarities between the work and cartoonist Daniel Clowes’ Justin M. Damiano, a graphic novel about – you guessed it – a film critic.
According to Buzzfeed, both the comic and the film open with the same monologue by the main character:
A critic is a warrior, and each of us on the battlefield have the means to glorify or demolish (whether a film, a career, or an entire philosophy) by influencing perception in ways that if heartfelt and truthful, can have far-reaching repercussions.
It was also noted that in some scenes, the dialogue in the comic and film was almost identical.
Shia previously gave an interview explaining how he developed the script himself after being “crushed by critics” during his Transformers days, and feeling the need to understand them.
Earlier this morning, he tweeted the following apology, in which he said he hadn’t intended to outright copy Clowes’ comic but use it to “inspire” his own short film:
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