Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers accused of plagiarism, one day before the Oscars
Luca writer Simon Stephenson has claimed that Payne's movie, written by David Hemingson, contains "brazen" similarities to his unproduced screenplay Frisco
Aux News The Holdovers
It just wouldn’t be Oscars season without at least one big accusation or scandal falling on one of its potential winners in the lead-up to the awards—and apparently “The dog from Anatomy Of A Fall is just too dang cute” wasn’t cutting it. Variety reports that Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers has now been accused of plagiarism by Luca writer Simon Stephenson, who claims that its screenplay “has been plagiarised line-by-line” from his own unproduced 2013 script, Frisco.
Although he doesn’t have a ton of credits, screenwriter and novelist Stephenson isn’t an unknown quantity in the industry: He contributed writing to Paul King’s Paddington 2 and Wonka, for instance, was a credited writer on animated feature Luca, and was, at least as of 2020, working with Edgar Wright on a feature adaptation of his own book, Set My Heart To Five. Meanwhile, his 2013 script for Frisco was good enough to land at number 3 on that year’s Black List, the list of great, as-yet-unproduced screenplays, charming readers with its story of a broken-down older professional getting a bit of spark back by connecting with a difficult 15-year-old and yeah, you can totally see where this is going, right?
Bolstering the plagiarism case is the fact that Stephenson seems to have proof that Payne, who reportedly worked on shaping the story of The Holdovers with credited screenwriter David Hemingson, was given Frisco at least twice to read, in 2013 and then again in 2019. (He apparently liked it both times, but passed on directing it.) Less compelling: The fact that Frisco is about an aging pediatrician, not a miserable school teacher—although, taking a read through the script, it’s not hard to imagine Paul Giamatti delivering some of these lines. Stephenson calls the similarities “brazen,” but it’s not as easy, to our eyes, to draw exact 1 to 1s; that, presumably, is what lawyers are for.
Per Variety, Payne and Hemingson have both declined comment. (It’s not really relevant to the accusations, but Hemingson has had a pretty eclectic writing career: It’s not every day a former entertainment lawyer scores an Oscar nomination for his very first produced screenplay.) Voting for the Oscars is now closed, so Stephenson’s accusations can’t impact voting; he apparently brought his “credits-related issue” to the WGA back on January 12.
43 Comments
Not sure what to think about this one. A lot of people on Twitter (take that with a huge grain of salt) say they’ve read the Frisco screenplay and it’s nothing like The Holdovers, while others making the same claim say they’re practically identical. I’m literally watching The Holdovers right now and like it so far. Weird that this article popped up while I have it on.
Its best to read both scripts. There are some similarities but a hell of a lot of differences, like a major character dies who didn’t level different. I’m personally not sold. Plagerism is super common but I’m just not convinced beyond doubt here.
Plagiarism of this kind (hollywood screenplays) is actually extremely UNcommon and the vast majority of these lawsuits are utterly without merit.
I would be curious to know how common it is for screenplays. I know its common academically but this is a different matter altogether.
I think the degree to which it actually happens is dwarfed by the amount of legal battles without merit.
Exactly. There are thousands of embittered writers out there who are just CONVINCED that someone “stole their idea!” But that almost never actually happens. For every Art Buchwald, there are 500 false accusations.There’s very little incentive for a studio to “steal” an idea and parallel development happens ALL THE TIME. People love to think their ideas are unique flashes of genius that only they could think. But that’s just not the case.Even for people who are already professionals, as in the “Holdovers” case.
They are similar but Frisco didn’t really have the equivalent of that fat black lady.
Spoilers, dude!
Da’Vine Joy Randolph is her name.
People can judge for themselves:Frisco:https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iWnsvkfgkmn3TvLQS2JNmpAbEmj82Gz6/view?pli=1Holdovers:https://deadline.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/The-Holdovers-Read-The-Screenplay.pdfI haven’t looked at them but I’m guessing it’s like 99% of these “plagiarism” cases, where two people had the same idea. Like how we get Armageddon and Deep Impact in the same year.
Armageddon and Deep Impact are always the examples I use of lateral thinking. I also bring up A Bug’s Life and Antz.
Or when Warner Bros was going to turn “The Tower” into a movie, which was about a skyscraper on fire, and Fox was going to turn “The Glass Inferno” into a movie, which was also about a skyscraper on fire, so they decided to combine their efforts and make “The Towering Inferno.”
This is even better than how peanut butter and jelly became a thing!
Nine year old me saw it in the theatre and was dazzled. I wish it turned up on TV more often.
Not same year, but also The Sting and Bee Movie. Although I’ve not seen the latter. I assume same basic thing though.
A Bug’s Life and Antz wasn’t parallel thinking though, it was a deliberate attempt by Jeffrey Katzenberg to have Dreamworks release an ant-themed movie before Disney/Pixar’s bug-themed movie.The fact that Disney/Pixar was working on a bug-related CG movie was well-known in industry circles at the time, and Katzenberg was aware of an “army ants” cartoon pitch from his time at Disney, and going by most accounts Katzenberg didn’t care much about how good Antz was, only that it came out before A Bug’s Life.
Those Twin movies sometimes crop up because ‘Zeitgeist,’ and sometimes because someone shops around a script or a pitch , the studio passes , but starts work on their own in gouse version assuming that the original won’t get made.(AKA The B5/Ds9 story), which is a TV show , but you get the idea..also one writer mentioning a comic idea they were walking on to an industry mate led to the ‘group of outsider heroes led by a guy in a wheelchair’ comics Doom Patrol/X Men debuting at the same time)
Checking and commenting on the AV Club while watching a movie. LOCKED IN lol.
I knew someone was going to call me out on that.
like, how good is it if you’re on the AV club in the middle of it? lol
Reading the document at the end the Variety article and having just seen “The Holdovers”, I’m just not seeing that much in common between the two, despite all of the examples included.
He didn’t see it until now?
Look, once you add Suits to your Netflix queue, that’s nine seasons you gotta get through.
“he apparently brought his “credits-related issue” to the WGA back on January 12.”Ah, reading. It’s the great equalizer, isn’t it?
He lodged a complaint with WGA in January. The Variety article came out yesterday for some reason. Maybe they waited to publish until the Oscar voting ended?
If you are implying that having this article come out a day before the Oscars is going to impact its chances, it won’t. Those votes have been tabulated and voting closed last week.
The article’s last sentence says the same thing.
How about reading the fucking article?
Reading can be your best friend.
Frisco opens with the character going on a rant about being stuck in a rut. He’s basically saying the motivation out loud at the start, without the journey, and just stating his feelings instead of the audience discovering himA much lesser concept, but one more fitting for John Krasinski, I suppose
“You can’t just have your characters announce how they feel! That makes me feel angry!” — Robot Devil, Futurama.
When you write cliche unoriginal screenplays, you will see a lot of stuff that appears to be plagiarizing your work.
I’ve seen enough comments online from people who read Frisco and it’s extremely apparent that this is just (yet another) nothingburger. For every one Art Buchwald, there are 500 of these cases.
Purposefully waited until voting was already concluded to make his accusation. Why? Because if it wins the Oscar and his plagiarism case wins, he will then get a writing credit and an Oscar. Seems slimy to me.
He complained to WGA in January.
FWIW according to the Variety article he first raised it in January; it’s only just now hit the media.