Movies
A new copyright infringement lawsuit targets the creative team behind one of 2023’s most celebrated films. Screenwriter Simon Stephenson filed suit on Wednesday, alleging that director Alexander Payne and writer David Hemingson lifted material from his unproduced script to create The Holdovers.
Alexander Payne and David Hemingson face legal action over The Holdovers screenplay
Stephenson, known for writing credits on Pixar’s Luca and Paddington 2, claims Payne obtained multiple copies of his 2013 screenplay Frisco before passing on the project. The complaint, reviewed by EW, accuses Payne and his collaborators of taking 46 incidents from Frisco and repurposing them for The Holdovers. The lawsuit lists Payne, Hemingson, producer Mark Johnson, Gran Via Productions, Focus Features, Miramax, their parent companies, and Honest Scholar as defendants.
The screenwriter’s legal team argues the parallels are unmistakable. “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,” the filing states. The complaint highlights a telling detail from a May 2021 draft of The Holdovers screenplay. Teen character Angus (Dominic Sessa) references traveling “for a medical conference,” yet no medical conference exists in the finished film.
“No medical conference figures in The Holdovers’ story: its adult protagonist is a teacher, and neither he nor the teenager is traveling to attend a medical conference,” the lawsuit explains. “The explanation belongs to Frisco’s plot, and its presence in the May 2021 The Holdovers script is evidence that the script was unlawfully copied. Its subsequent removal—while the lines surrounding it remained—is consistent with that copying then being concealed.”
Stephenson also submitted email exhibits suggesting Payne and associates received and acknowledged the Frisco screenplay, indicating familiarity with his work before production began. He seeks actual damages, injunctive relief to block further alleged infringement of his copyright, and attorney’s fees.
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