The Holdovers filmmakers sued over plagiarism allegations

Screenwriter Simon Stephenson has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against director Alexander Payne, writer David Hemingson, and several production companies, alleging that the Oscar-winning film ‘The Holdovers’ was based on his unproduced 2013 screenplay, ‘Frisco’.

The complaint alleges that Payne and his collaborators repurposed 46 specific incidents from ‘Frisco’ by making cosmetic changes, such as transforming a children’s hospital setting into a boarding school and a pediatrician into a teacher. Stephenson, whose credits include ‘Paddington 2’ and ‘Luca’, claims that Payne had access to his script through his agents in 2013 and 2019.

Legal filings highlight a May 2021 draft of ‘The Holdovers’ that included a reference to a medical conference—a plot point from ‘Frisco’ that was later removed from the final film. The lawsuit names multiple defendants, including producer Mark Johnson, Miramax, Focus Features, Gran Via Productions, and Honest Scholar. Alexander Payne previously dismissed the allegations as ‘the stupidest thing in the world’ during the Sarajevo Film Festival.