A freelance designer and photographer created something of a controversy earlier this week when he claimed Spike Lee's film company stole his designs for the posters it's using to promote the new movie "Oldboy."
Yesterday, Lee took to Twitter to dismiss the claims of Juan Luis Garcia, whose open letter claimed that an ad agency working on the film refused to pay him a reasonable fee for his work, and then made its own posters based on his designs.
In his signature Twitter style, Lee wrote that he'd never heard of Garcia and that it was a "cheap trick" writing to him in public.
I Never Heard Of This Guy Juan Luis Garcia,If He Has A Beef It's Not With Me.I Did Not Hire Him,Do Not Know Him.Cheap Trick Writing To Me.YO
— Spike Lee (@SpikeLee) November 28, 2013Lee's message inspired a string of frustrated responses from Twitter users, who feel he should have done more to investigate Garcia's claims.
Lee responded to one such complaint, saying that Garcia never tried to reach him privately before taking his grievances public:
@missyhelly Lady It Was Not Heartless.Juan Luis Garcia Came With The Wrong Approach.Never Tried To Reach Me.To Do It In A Public Letter?NO
— Spike Lee (@SpikeLee) November 29, 2013Garcia said in his letter that he spent two months working on the posters, only for the ad agency working on the movie to offer him less money than he makes in a day of photography work.
He said he was then threatened by the agency when he refused to take the low wages they offered him, and that they ultimately used posters that ripped off his ideas.
Here's a comparison he made of his mock-ups with the posters that were ultimately used to promote the movie:
And here are two more posters Garcia said he made that ultimately wound up on Oldboy's Facebook page:
SEE ALSO: Spike Lee Accused Of Stealing 'Oldboy' Movie Poster From An Unpaid Designer