Simon Stephenson, who has a story by credit on “Luca” and contributed to “Paddington 2” and “Wonka,” is suing Alexander Payne in federal court alleging that Oscar-nominated screenplay “The Holdovers” was plagiarized from his script “Frisco.”
Along with Payne, the lawsuit names “The Holdovers” screenwriter David Hemingson, producer Mark Johnson, Miramax, Focus Features and Universal Home Entertainment. The defendants have been accused of copyright infringement and plagiarism.
According to the complaint, Stephenson alleges that “Payne read [Frisco] in 2013 and again in 2019. Payne passed on both occasions, but in 2022, he finally made Stephenson’s screenplay. Under Payne’s direction, Stephenson’s children’s hospital became a boarding school, the cynical pediatrician became a cynical teacher and the precocious patient became a precocious pupil.”
Stephenson’s “Frisco” appeared on the annual compilation of unproduced scripts loved within the industry, the Black List, back in 2013. Coming in at No. 3, its synopsis read, “A forty-something pediatric allergist, who specializes in hazelnut and is facing a divorce, learns lessons in living from a wise-beyond-her-years terminally ill 15-year-old patient when she crashes his weekend trip to a conference in San Francisco.”
According to the complaint, “The copying of Frisco extends from the overall story down to the construction and nuance of individual exchanges. Forty-six incidents correspond across the works, with 24 occurring in the same order.”
“The Holdovers” tells the story of a cantankerous boarding school teacher, played by Paul Giamatti, forced to play caretaker to a teen over a boarding school’s holiday break.
Payne has said himself that he had a rough idea for the film for years, inspired by obscure 1935 French film “Merlusse,” which he’d seen at a festival. He later hired Hemingson to write the script after reading a TV pilot that he had written in a similar setting. Hemingson has also credited many of the best lines he wrote for Paul Giamatti’s character as being inspired by his uncle.
“The Holdovers” were nominated for five Academy Awards, including best screenplay and grossed $46 million at the box office.
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