Marilyn Manson & Shia LaBeouf - "Born Villain" (Short Film)

"Born Villain is the title of the new Marilyn Manson album. While looking to experiment in unlikely collaborations, I met Shia, and we spent a long night at my studio. After seeing "Maniac," his [KiD CuDi] short film, which is somewhat inspired by Man Bites Dog, I was astonished by his directing ability. So, I shared quite a few of my favorite inspirations in art, literature, and obviously film. I was impressed with how Shia [LeBeouf] digested my world, and made what I'd like to think, is both an homage and a mockery of the history of cinema. We ended up writing a short film. The score is from my new album, and is, in the words of Macbeth, "Full of sound and fury.'"

- Brian Warner (Marilyn Manson)

Shai LeBeouf put it best when he recently confessed that "In my teenage years, [Marilyn Manson] was the scariest thing in the world, so part of me has always been intrigued." As Shai and I are generally the same age (24-25), I share the same general sentiment and can vividly remember when Manson first became a house-hold name. As a matter of fact, I can also remember a roughly a concurrently-running moment in time... when LaBeouf first broke onto the scene with Even Stevens (Disney). It was a glorious time period: Way before Transformers #1-3, the mass consumption of The Internet-Social Medium, Wall Street [2], post-"The Beautiful People"/"Dope Show." A time when Limp Bizkit were still at the top of the charts, but before Wes Borland joined and quickly left Marilyn Manson [band], pre-dating Dita Von Teese and Evan Rachel Wood.

All throughout the latter part of grade school (pre-2000), Manson was relentlessly lampooned in the press; Headlines were casually plastered with empty rumors: "Paul" from Wonder Years, the third coming of The Anti-Christ, "the rib cage story" ha, ruthless on-stage antics, human/animal sacrifices, allegedly frivolous spending habits, Columbine, the removing of eyeballs, etc. But I must admit, I've always been a slightly intrigued, casual fan. Marilyn Manson just seems to have this way about him, this presence... Yeah, we've all heard the stories and read the "articles," but I believe that it's all just an act. At times, you can tell that in reality, Manson is no "monster." Over the years, his built up this super-human, Shock Rock public persona - But I think under all that, in his down time, he's just a [slightly eccentric] average guy like you or I.