Looks like when you sit down to watch the 96th Oscar Awards ceremony this time, seekers of a little controversy will not have to wait for one with bated breath as Alexander Payne’s widely celebrated and praised The Holdovers is already attracting the wrong kind of attention.
In a shocking expose by Variety, it has been revealed screenwriter Simon Stephenson (who penned Luca) accused Payne, the director of The Holdovers, of plagiarising the unproduced script he wrote, titled Frisco. Based on the email evidence revealed by the outlet, Stephenson had shared the script with Payne twice — in 2013 and then in 2019. He reportedly read the script at least twice before he decided to pass it in December 2019 and it was conveyed to the writer that the director liked it but was not interested in directing or producing it.
This was right before Payne got David Hemingson involved in the project and the duo started shaping the script of The Holdovers.
Stephenson also shared a detailed comparison of the final script of The Holdovers and Frisco, claiming that the former is “forensically identical” to his work as the “meaningful entirety” of the Oscar-nominated film’s plot has similarities in “story, characters, structure, scenes [and] dialogue” with his script.
As per the report, Stephenson lodged a complaint with the Writers Guild of America back on Jan. 12, 2024, via email and assured that he can prove his claim “beyond any possible doubt.”
“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.’”
The storyline of the two films is pretty similar — Frisco was about a frustrated and tired children’s doctor who ends up shouldering the responsibility of taking care of his 15-year-old patient. The Holdovers saw a middle-aged, disgruntled school teacher having no option but to take care of a 15-year-old student who had nowhere to go during the Christmas break.
Though the WGA doesn’t technically deal with allegations of plagiarism when it concerns a spec script, they have been debating the issue since Stephenson filed his complaint and demanded a full-blown investigation. But they have not taken any concrete steps, yet.
So far, Hemingson and Payne have already won a number of awards for The Holdovers, whose screenplay is currently a Best Original Screenplay Award nominee at the Oscars (which takes place on March 10. 2024). At the time of writing, neither Hemingson, Payne, nor the WGA have addressed the shocking report and the concerning allegations.
Will this change the Academy’s decision since The Holdovers is considered a hot contender along with Anatomy of a Fall in the original screenplay category and is expected to win against Maestro, Past Lives, and May December? Chances of this being resolved before the Oscar red carpet rolls out are slim and this not affecting the other four categories — including the Best Actor nominee Paul Giamatti — the film is nominated in are slimmer. It remains to be seen whether the Academy is ready to play it fast and loose with the term “original” in the category or not.