2024 Academy Awards: ‘The Holdovers’ accused of plagiarism by ‘Luca’ writer

A day before the 96th Academy Awards, “The Holdovers” screenwriter-director Alexander Payne and writer David Hemingson have been accused of plagiarizing “line by line” a script from a never-made film more than a decade ago, according to a published report.

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According to Variety, screenwriter Simon Stephenson, who penned “Luca” and “Paddington 2,” said that “The Holdovers,” nominated for best screenplay and four other Oscars this year, had been plagiarized from his screenplay, “Frisco.”

In emails and documents sent to the Writers Guild of America, Stephenson accused Payne and Hemingson of lifting the premise of his 2013 work, Entertainment Weekly reported.

Screenwriter Simon Stephenson (“Luca,” “Paddington 2”) has alleged that David Hemingson's script for Alexander Payne's "The Holdovers" plagiarizes "line-by-line" from Stephenson's own script, "Frisco."

Details here: https://t.co/ELO8JGgQFC pic.twitter.com/W9b1AEYALl
— Variety (@Variety) March 9, 2024

Variety reviewed and published the emails and documents.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, “Frisco” was a drama that centered on a world-weary middle-aged doctor and his 15-year-old female patient he was forced to look after.

“The Holdovers” features a world-weary middle-aged boarding school teacher and a 15-year-old student he has to watch, the entertainment news website reported.

“Frisco” was ranked No. 3 on the Black List, an annual survey of Hollywood’s best unproduced screenplays, in 2013, according to Entertainment Weekly.

“I can demonstrate beyond any possible doubt that the meaningful entirety of the screenplay for a film with WGA-sanctioned credits that is currently on track to win a screenwriting Oscar has been plagiarized line-by-line from a popular unproduced screenplay of mine,” Stephenson allegedly wrote to the Writers Guild of America, according to Variety. “I can also show that the director of the offending film was sent and read my screenplay on two separate occasions prior to the offending film entering development. By ‘meaningful entirety’ I do mean literally everything- story, characters, structure, scenes, dialogue, the whole thing. Some of it is just insanely brazen: many of the most important scenes are effectively unaltered and even remain visibly identical in layout on the page.

“The two screenplays are forensically identical and riddled with unique smoking guns throughout.”

Voting is already closed for the Oscars, and Hemingson is poised to become the third screenwriter of a film directed by Payne to win a statuette, Variety reported.

Payne won Academy Awards for adapted screenplay for “Sideways” and “The Descendants.”

Stephenson first notified the Writer’s Guild of America about the similarities between the two scripts on Jan. 12.

Payne and Hemingson declined comment to Variety. Stephenson confirmed the authenticity of the emails but declined further comment, according to the entertainment news website.

Cases involving screenplay plagiarism have been rare.

In 1998, Art Buchwald sued Paramount Pictures for $6.2 million, claiming that the comedy “Coming to America” was based on the screenplay “King for a Day,” co-written by the humorist and Alain Bernheim.

Buchwald was awarded $825,000 after seven years of litigation, according to Variety.

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