By On Oscars Eve, one of tomorrow’s nights biggest contenders has suddenly found itself under a bit of a rain cloud.
An exclusive report in Variety has revealed that the Alexander Payne-directed drama “The Holdovers” is facing a controversy of alleged plagiarism regarding David Hemingson’s Oscar-nominated original screenplay.
The film follows a cynical teacher (Paul Giamatti) at a boarding school who gets stuck caring for a teenage boy (Dominic Sessa) over Christmas break.
Simon Stephenson, the acclaimed scribe of “Paddington 2” and Pixar’s “Luca,” alleges that the Holdover’s script boasts many striking similarities to one of Stephenson’s unproduced screenplays titled “Frisco”.
That script follows a cynical pediatrician who finds himself caring for a teenage patient over a period of days and landed on the Black List in 2013. Stephenson has documents comparing scenes from both screenplays as well as their overall structure with the trade making one of those documents public Saturday.
Stephenson reportedly sent documents to the WGA in January to seek help with this issue, reportedly saying Payne was sent drafts of the “Frisco” script in both 2013 and 2019 to try and get him to board the project. The document claims:
“The meaningful entirety of the screenplay for THE HOLDOVERS has been copied from the FRISCO screenplay by transposition. This includes the FRISCO screenplay’s entire story, structure, sequencing, scenes, sequential sub-beats within scenes, line-by-line substance of action and dialogue, characters, arcs, relationships, theme and tone. A majority of this has been done line-for-line, and a large number of unique and highly specific elements created in FRISCO are readily and unequivocally identifiable in THE HOLDOVERS.”
Stephenson highlights one moment in both projects in which the lead is summoned to his boss’ office and told off for wronging a politician – in “Holdovers” it’s a senator, in “Frisco” it’s a congresswoman.
Voting for the original screenplay Oscar is already finalised so the controversy won’t impact who wins the award tomorrow night.
Source: THR
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