Shia LaBeouf's short movie HowardCantour.com - which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival Critic's Week sidebar in 2012 - was made available online on Monday (December 16, 2013) and it didn't take long for the haters to start piling in.

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When we say haters, what we actually mean is movie fans who noticed the distinct similarities between LaBeouf's movie and Daniel Clowes' comic book Justin M. Damiano. Articles began popping up dissecting the similarities between the movies and Clowes' text and HowardCantour.com disappeared behind a password protected wall, according to Entertainment Weekly.

LaBeouf remained out of reach for most of the day and his representatives did not immediately respond to requests. However, early on Tuesday morning, the actor took to Twitter to explain. Below are the tweets:

"Copying isn't particularly creative work. Being inspired by someone else's idea to produce something new and different IS creative work," he said.

"I'm embarrassed that I failed to credit @danielclowes for his original graphic novella Justin M. Damiano, which served as my inspiration."

"I 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."

"I deeply regret the manner in which these events have unfolded and want @danielclowes to know that I have a great respect for his work."

"I f*cked up," he finished.

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"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," Clowes told BuzzFeed. "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."

Clowes is best known for his alt-comics including Wilson and Ghost World, the latter of which was made into a film in 2001 with Scarlett Johansson.