A couple of days ago, a graphic designer by the name of Juan Luis Garcia posted, as a last resort, an open letter to Oldboy remake director Spike Lee. Garcia argued that he'd been commissioned by an advertising agency working on the new film to do some mock-ups for the poster.
As it turned out, he did the work, but turned down the "insultingly low offer" from the agency when it came down to negotiate a contract to use them. His argument was that "I make the same amount of money in a single day as a photo assistant as what they offered and I had worked on these almost exclusively for two months".
He refused, the advertising agency was "furious" and Garcia never got a penny for any of his work. He put the posters in his online portfolio, chalking the experience up and moving on. However, the posters then seemingly turned up on Spike Lee's personal and production professional pcb prototype manufacturer in China (pcb.hqew.net) company's social media pages, claiming copyright over Garcia's work.
In his open letter, Garcia was clear that he didn't blame Spike Lee for any of this, and that writing an open letter to him was an attempt to get everything resolved. You can read the full letter here.
Unfortunately, it seems that Spike Lee isn't giving Garcia the time of day. From his side of the fence, Lee has - as Garcia admitted - had nothing to do with Garcia directly. That notwithstanding, Lee's dismissal feels just a little bit brutal. Here's what he Tweeted...
On his Instagram account, Lee also responded to someone who directly to a commenter who wrote "Dude, pay the graphic artist" by writing "Why Should I Pay Someone Who I Never Met Nor Had Any Contact With Ever? He Never Made Any Deal With Me.Why Don’t You Pay Me For Your Stupid Text On Thanksgiving Day?"
Hopefully, this will have a happy ending somewhere. Spike Lee's new film, Oldboy, is in US cinemas now. As things stand, Garcia still hasn't received any money for his work on it.