Alexander Payne Accused of Plagiarizing ‘Luca’ Author for ‘Holdovers’

The director of ‘The Holdovers’ is being accused of ripping off one other Hollywood artistic, who claims the man hijacked his personal years-old script in what he calls outright plagiarism.

Simon Stephenson — whose story/writing credit embrace ‘Luca,’ ‘Paddington 2’ and different huge hits — levied a heavy plagiarism allegation in opposition to Alexander Payne earlier this yr with none aside from the WGA … and his claims are simply now coming to gentle publicly.

In response to Variety — which has reviewed and revealed emails from this complete ordeal — Stephenson hit up some WGA honchos to complain that Payne’s script/story for ‘The Holdovers’ was a “brazen” ripoff of a script he wrote again in 2013 known as ‘Frisco.’

Not solely are the plots almost similar, Stephenson alleges, however he goes on to assert there’s “line-by-line” replication … including he has proof Payne reviewed his screenplay in years previous.

Stephenson wrote in certainly one of his emails to WGA, “I’ve been a working writer for 20 years — in my native U.K. before I came to the U.S. — and so I’m very aware that people can often have surprisingly similar ideas and sometimes a few elements can be ‘borrowed,’ etc.”

He provides emphatically … “This just isn’t that situation. The two screenplays are forensically identical and riddled with unique smoking guns throughout.”

Stephenson was reportedly advised his gripes weren’t a guild concern, and that he would possibly want to think about a lawsuit to handle his considerations — no phrase on whether or not he is completed that but.

As for Payne — who’s not a author on ‘Holdovers,’ however who says he closely supervised the script-writing course of — he is publicly mentioned his flick is loosely impressed by a 1935 French movie.