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‘Oldboy’ and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Weekend…

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10 years ago

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The day before the film’s Thanksgiving release, designer Juan Luis Garcia made claims that an ad agency stole his designs for Spike Lee’s Oldboy (review), which only added more negative energy* surrounding the release. Obviously, we don’t have an opinion on the matter because we aren’t the judge or jury, but his designs were extraordinarily similar. Garcia took his frustrations to his blog and wrote an open letter to Lee, explaining the situation. At no point does he blast Lee, only stating that he was told Lee liked his comps and that the ad agency wanted to use them.

Lee caught wind of the letter over the holiday, tweeting out a pretty harsh response: “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.“

Did Lee even read the letter? I’m guessing not as he immediately gets defensive, not to mention that Garcia never appeared to have beef with Lee. He was only asking the director of the film to help get what was owed to him by the ad agency. Lee has a lot of power, and is very accessible, which is why it makes a lot of sense to write an open letter to him.

It got worse when Instagram followers started to push on Lee, who responded to them: “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?”

Again, Lee doesn’t appear to have even read the designer’s letter, as there was no attack on Lee, but the agency doing the work for FilmDistrict.

In an email to The Hollywood Reporter Wednesday, Garcia said he hoped Lee could help him resolve the situation with the ad agency without taking any legal action. He said he wasn’t naming the ad agency because Lee knew “exactly who” he was talking about.

“I don’t want to sue anyone, it’s not in my nature, but if that’s what it comes down to, so be it,” he wrote in the email. “I’m thrilled he liked the posters and hope they continue using them, but I need to be renumerated.”

I’m actually dying to see how this plays out. Is Garcia seeking attention to get work? Or is Spike Lee oblivious to some truly sinister behind-the-scenes games by an ad agency? We’ll keep you posted as the story progresses…

*In even worse news, Lee’s reboot of director Chan-wook Park’s South Korean revenge thriller of the same name, surrounded by bad buzz, is getting clobbered at the Thanksgiving box office. Playing in merely 583 locations, Variety reports that Oldboy could earn just $2 million for the five-day weekend in what’s shaping up to be one of the worst performances of the year. BRUTAL. We’ll report back with the final details tomorrow.

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Horror movie fanatic who co-founded Bloody Disgusting in 2001. Producer on Southbound, V/H/S/2/3/94, SiREN, Under the Bed, and A Horrible Way to Die. Chicago-based. Horror, pizza and basketball connoisseur. Taco Bell daily. Franchise favs: Hellraiser, Child's Play, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, Scream and Friday the 13th. Horror 365 days a year.

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Dev Patel’s ‘Monkey Man’ Is Now Available to Watch at Home!

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13 hours ago

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April 23, 2024

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After pulling in $28 million at the worldwide box office this month, director (and star) Dev Patel’s critically acclaimed action-thriller Monkey Man is now available to watch at home.

You can rent Monkey Man for $19.99 or digitally purchase the film for $24.99!

Monkey Man is currently 88% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, with Bloody Disgusting’s head critic Meagan Navarro awarding the film 4.5/5 stars in her review out of SXSW back in March.

Meagan raves, “While the violence onscreen is palpable and painful, it’s not just the exquisite fight choreography and thrilling action set pieces that set Monkey Man apart but also its political consciousness, unique narrative structure, and myth-making scale.”

“While Monkey Man pays tribute to all of the action genre’s greats, from the Indonesian action classics to Korean revenge cinema and even a John Wick joke or two, Dev Patel’s cultural spin and unique narrative structure leave behind all influences in the dust for new terrain,” Meagan’s review continues.

She adds, “Monkey Man presents Dev Patel as a new action hero, a tenacious underdog with a penetrating stare who bites, bludgeons, and stabs his way through bodies to gloriously bloody excess. More excitingly, the film introduces Patel as a strong visionary right out of the gate.”

Inspired by the legend of Hanuman, Monkey Man stars Patel as Kid, an anonymous young man who ekes out a meager living in an underground fight club where, night after night, wearing a gorilla mask, he is beaten bloody by more popular fighters for cash. After years of suppressed rage, Kid discovers a way to infiltrate the enclave of the city’s sinister elite. As his childhood trauma boils over, his mysteriously scarred hands unleash an explosive campaign of retribution to settle the score with the men who took everything from him.

Monkey Man is produced by Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions.

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