A screenwriter sued Alexander Payne on Wednesday, alleging that the screenplay for “The Holdovers” was based on his unproduced screenplay set in a children’s hospital.
The screenwriter, Simon Stephenson, took his allegations to the Writers Guild of America in 2024, but was told the union could not decide the matter and was referred to an attorney. Payne later denied the allegations at the Sarajevo Film Festival, saying the claims were “the stupidest thing in the world.”
In addition to Payne, the lawsuit names as defendants “Holdovers” screenwriter David Hemingson, producer Mark Johnson, Miramax, Focus Features and other corporate entities.
The suit claims there are 46 “corresponding incidents” in the plots of the two storylines. As described in the complaint, Stephenson’s screenplay, “Frisco,” tells the story of a discouraged hospital doctor stuck caring for a precocious teenage patient. The two men develop a friendship during a trip to San Francisco, which results in the doctor’s decision to quit his job and embark on a cross-country backpacking trip.
The lawsuit contends that the similarities to “The Holdovers” are more than mere coincidence, and that the structure and incidents of “Frisco” “have been meticulously transposed into “The Holdovers,” with surface cosmetic details altered.
“Screenplays are often considered the blueprint for a film,” the lawsuit states. “The defendants constructed their film using ‘Frisco’ as a template.”
Stephenson is an experienced screenwriter, with credits on “Paddington 2,” “Luca” and “The Electric Life of Louis Wain.” He wrote “Frisco” in 2012-2013, drawing on his experiences as a pediatrician, and the screenplay was ranked third on the Black List – the list of the best unproduced screenplays in Hollywood.
According to Stephenson, his agents sought to interest Payne in directing the film and had him read it in 2013 and again in 2019. But he was successful, according to the lawsuit, with his producing partner telling Stephenson’s agent that “Payne liked it but wasn’t interested in producing or directing.”
The suit alleges that elements of the “Frisco” script were incorporated into draft versions of “The Holdovers” via Payne’s contribution to Hemingson.
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