When the Academy Awards are presented on the night of March 10th to 11th, the makers of “The Holdovers” can hope for a golden boy in several categories, including the categories “Best Film” and “Best Original Screenplay”. “. But shortly before the award ceremony, accusations of plagiarism are being raised.
Author Simon Stephenson, who wrote the screenplay for the film “Luca” (2021) for Pixar and “Paddington 2” (2017) for StudioCanal, accuses “The Holdovers” director Alexander Payne and screenwriter David Hemingson of using his script. Frisco” from 2013 “line for line”. This is reported by Variety and refers to an email exchange between Stephenson and the senior director of credits at the Writer’s Guild of America.
“Frisco” is about a “world-weary, middle-aged pediatrician and the 15-year-old patient he has to take care of.” “The Holdovers”, on the other hand, tells the story of a teacher, a student and the head chef of a boarding school who are stuck at school together during the Christmas holidays. Stephenson states that director Alexander Payne saw his script back in 2013 and “liked it but wasn’t interested in producing or directing it.” In 2019 it allegedly ended up on Payne’s desk again – but he wasn’t interested in it then either.
That same year, Payne and Hemingson began their project “The Holdovers.” Speaking about the creation, Payne said on the podcast “The Rough Cut” in November 2023 that he “stole” the idea for the film from a French film from 1935, but explained: “Not the story as it develops, but the premise.” Eventually he hired Hemingson to write the screenplay.
According to Variety, neither Alexander Payne nor Hemingson nor the Writer’s Guild of America wanted to comment on Stephenson’s allegations.
At the 96th Academy Awards, “The Holdovers” is nominated in five categories: Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay and Best Editing, as well as Best Actor for Paul Giamatti and Best Supporting Actress for Da’Vine Joy Randolph.
