Alexander Payne Sued for ‘The Holdovers’ Copyright Infringement by ‘Luca’ Screenwriter
Plaintiff Simon Stephenson alleges the Oscar-nominated screenplay copied his script “from the overall story down to the construction and nuance of individual exchanges” The post Alexander Payne Sued for ‘The Holdovers’ Copyright Infringement by ‘Luca’ Screenwriter appeared first on TheWrap .
Screenwriter Simon Stephenson has filed a lawsuit against director Alexander Payne and several others, accusing them of copyright infringement and plagiarism in his screenplay "The Holdovers." The alleged copying spans from the overall story to individual exchanges, with 46 incidents corresponding across the works, 24 of which occur in the same order.
Stephenson alleges that Payne read his "Frisco" script in 2013 and 2019, before eventually using it for "The Holdovers" in 2022. The lawsuit names Payne, screenwriter David Hemingson, producer Mark Johnson, Miramax, Focus Features and Universal Home Entertainment as defendants. "The Holdovers" tells the story of a cantankerous boarding school teacher, forced to play caretaker to a teen over a boarding school's holiday break, and has been nominated for five Academy Awards.
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