A screenwriter filed a lawsuit against Alexander Payne on Wednesday, claiming the script for “The Holdovers” was based on his unproduced screenplay set in a children’s hospital.
Screenwriter Simon Stephenson took his allegations to the Writers Guild of America in 2024, but was told the union could not adjudicate the matter and that it had been referred to an attorney. Payne later denied the allegations at the Sarajevo Film Festival, saying the allegation was “the stupidest thing in the world”.
In addition to Payne, the lawsuit also names “Holdovers” screenwriter David Hemingson, producer Mark Johnson, Miramax, Focus Properties and other corporate entities as defendants.
The lawsuit alleges that there were 46 “matching events” in the plots of the two scripts. As described in the complaint, Stephenson’s screenplay, “Frisco,” tells the story of a demoralized doctor forced to care for a precocious teenage patient in the hospital. The two develop a friendship during a trip to San Francisco, which culminates in the doctor deciding to quit his job and travel across the country.
The lawsuit argues that the similarities to “The Holdovers” are more than coincidence and that the structure and events of “Frisco” have been “meticulously transferred to ‘The Holdovers’ by changing surface cosmetic details.”
“Scenarios are often called the blueprint of the film,” the lawsuit states. “The defendants created their movie using ‘Frisco’ as a backdrop.”
Stephenson is an experienced screenwriter who worked on the films “Paddington 2”, “Luca” and “The Electrical Life of Louis Wain”. Drawing on his experiences as a pediatrician, he wrote “Frisco” in 2012-13, and the script ranked third on the Black List of Hollywood’s best unproduced screenplays.
According to Stephenson, his managers tried to interest Payne in making the film and had him read it in 2013 and again in 2019. However, the lawsuit states that the film was passed after his producing partner told Stephenson’s manager that “Payne liked the film but was not interested in producing or directing.”
The lawsuit alleges that elements of the “Frisco” script found their way into drafts of “The Holdovers” through information Payne provided to Hemingson.