'Luca' writer Simon Stephenson has accused Alexander Payne's 'The Holdovers' of plagiarism, calling its screenplay 'identical' to his 'Frisco' screenplay from 2013.
, follows a disgruntled children’s doctor who gets stuck looking after a 15-year-old patient, while Hemingson’stells the story of a disgruntled boarding school teacher who is left in charge of a 15-year-old student over the holidays.
Representatives for Payne, Hemingson, Focus Features, Stephenson, and the WGA did not immediately respond to EW's request for comment. Payne and Hemingson declined to comment toand though Stephenson confirmed the authenticity of the emails, he declined to further comment to the outlet.Seacia Pavao/FOCUS FEATURES
In a separate email to the WGA board sent in February, Stephenson wrote that he could “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 added, “I’ve been a working writer for 20 years — in my native U.K. before I came to the U.S. — and so I’m very aware that people can often have surprisingly similar ideas and sometimes a few elements can be ‘borrowed,’ etc. This just isn’t that situation. The two screenplays are forensically identical and riddled with unique smoking guns throughout.”Frisco
South Africa Latest News, South Africa Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Alexander Payne's The Holdovers accused of plagiarism, one day before the OscarsLuca writer Simon Stephenson has claimed that Payne's movie, written by David Hemingson, contains 'brazen' similarities to his unproduced screenplay Frisco
Read more »
The mystery of Paul Giamatti's lazy eye in The Holdovers has (mostly) been solvedGiamatti is 'sworn to secrecy' about the details, but the secret to the Oscar nominee's success can be found in the The Holdovers' credits
Read more »
Da’Vine Joy Randolph Is a Tour de Force in 'The Holdovers'Quinci LeGardye is a Contributing Culture Editor who covers TV, movies, Korean entertainment, books, and pop culture. When she isn’t writing or checking Twitter, she’s probably watching the latest K-drama or giving a concert performance in her car.
Read more »
Da'Vine Joy Randolph's Most Memorable Roles Before 'The Holdovers'Da'Vine Joy Randolph's career was buzzy even before earning an Oscar nomination for 'The Holdovers'
Read more »
2024 Oscars live updates |Da’Vine Joy Randolph wins best supporting actress for “The Holdovers”It's finally time for the 2024 Oscars, where we're live from the red carpet. Here's how to watch, stream, who's hosting, who's winning and more.
Read more »
The Holdovers has five Oscar nominations... and one accusation of plagiarism.On the eve of the 2024 Academy Awards, Variety reports that a screenwriter, Simon Stephenson (Luca, Wonka, Paddington 2), has leveled accusations that the screenplay for Alexander Payne’s movie The Holdovers is “plagiarised line-by-line” from Stephenson’s unproduced screenplay Frisco.
Read more »