'The Holdovers' Accused of Plagiarism, Oscars 2024 Nominations Not Impacted

justjared.com:

Oscar nominated film The Holdovers has been accused of plagiarism. This whole story begins on January 12, 2024, when screenwriter Simon Stephenson, who wrote Pixar’s Luca, Paddington 2, and more, sent an email to an executive at the Writers Guild of America.

He wrote, “I’ve encountered a credits-related issue on quite a high profile WGA-covered project.” In another email, he continued, “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.’” Keep reading to find out more… Frisco is Simon‘s screenplay from 2013.

According to Variety, “Frisco” was a “drama centered on a world-weary middle-aged children’s doctor and the 15-year-old patient he gets stuck looking after.” According to Variety, The Holdovers is ” a drama revolving around a world-weary middle-aged boarding school teacher and the 15-year-old pupil he gets stuck looking after.” The Holdovers, directed by Alexander Payne and written by David Hemingson is nominated for best original screenplay this evening at the show, and is considered a frontrunner to win. Simon alleges that Alexander actually had the screen play for Frisco in 2013 and again in 2019, with an email from a UTA exec from that time period that states: “I spoke to Alexander Payne’s exec Jim Burke directly a while back and he said that Payne did like [Frisco] but was not interested in prod or directing it.” In 2024, Simon wrote another email to the WGA board, stating, “I can demonstrate beyond any possible doubt that the meaningful entirety of the screenplay for a film with WGA-sanctioned credits that is currently on track to win a screenwriting Oscar