The Holdovers, a film nominated for the Best Original Screenplay Award at the Oscars 2024, has been accused of plagiarism the day before the ceremony.
Screenwriter Simon Stephenson claims the hit movie ‘brazenly’ stole from his own screenplay, Frisco, saying there was ‘overwhelming’ evidence it had been plagiarised ‘line-by-line.’
The Holdovers is about a jaded middle-aged boarding school teacher and his 15-year-old student, while Frisco follows a jaded middle-aged children’s doctor and his 15-year-old patient.
The film, nominated for five Oscars, was written by David Hemingson and directed by Alexander Payne, with Stephenson claiming that he has evidence the latter had access to the Frisco script ‘on two separate occasions prior to the offending film entering development.’
Stephenson has presented his evidence to the Writers Guild of America and has urged them to launch an investigation. Variety, which first reported on the claims, understands the matter is still being discussed internally.
Payne and Hemingson declined to comment when contacted by the publication.
The script for Frisco was first distributed among Hollywood executives in 2013 and it landed in third place on a list that year that ranks the best unproduced screenplays.
Stephenson says he has evidence that Payne had access to Frisco in 2013 and then later in 2019 by supplying emails involving Hollywood heavyweights.
In one, dated December 6 2019, John Woodward, co-founder of production company Brightstar, said: ‘Sorry to say that Alexander has now read but says it is not quite what he is looking for. Might be worth following up with [Bob Odenkirk].’
Shortly after his exchange, Payne began work on The Holdovers, which stars Paul Giamatti, Da’Vine Joy Randolph and Dominic Sessa.
Summing up his case, Stephenson wrote in an email to WGA’s senior director of credits Lesley Mackey: ‘The evidence The Holdovers screenplay has been plagiarised line-by-line from frisco is genuinely overwhelming – anybody who looks at even the briefest sample pretty much invariably uses the word “brazen”.’
As well as Best Original Screenplay, The Holdovers is nominated for the Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Editing, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress.
Set in a private boys’ school in New England in 1970, The Holdovers follows Paul’s unimpressed teacher Paul Hunham, who is forced to look after the students who have nowhere to go during the Christmas holidays with only the help of the no-nonsense cafeteria manager Mary Lamb (Da’Vine).
Da’Vine and Paul previously spoke to Metro.co.uk about all the awards The Holdovers was garnering, with Da’Vine joking she was about to ‘cry’ due to the attention.
‘She’s always on the verge of falling apart. She’s right on the edge. It’s a crazy circus,’ Paul said of his co-star.
He also praised all the films up for gongs at the Oscars, agreeing that it can be tough to see one picked out as the winner at this time of year.
‘They all have real merit. They’re all really interesting movies,’ Paul said.
Metro.co.uk has contacted Payne’s rep, Hemingson’s agency, WME, and the WGA for comment.
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