Simon Stephenson, a screenwriter known for his work on Disney/Pixar’s Luca and Paddington 2, has escalated a long-running plagiarism dispute into a formal federal lawsuit. The filing, submitted in late October 2026, alleges that director Alexander Payne’s Academy Award-nominated film The Holdovers was plagiarized “line-by-line” from Stephenson’s 2013 script, Frisco.
The legal action marks a significant shift in a controversy that first surfaced during the 2024 awards season. While the Writers Guild of America (WGA) previously reviewed the matter, the guild declined to arbitrate the dispute in March 2024, citing the fact that Stephenson’s script was written “on spec”—meaning it was not produced under a guild contract. This left a formal copyright infringement lawsuit as the writer’s primary path for legal recourse.
Allegations of Decades-Old Access
At the center of the lawsuit is the 13-year-old screenplay Frisco, which earned a spot on the 2013 Black List, an annual survey of Hollywood’s most popular unproduced scripts. Stephenson’s filing claims that Payne had direct access to the material on at least two separate occasions before The Holdovers entered development. According to the complaint, Payne reportedly read the Frisco script in 2013 and again in 2019.
The lawsuit details what Stephenson describes as overwhelming similarities between the two works. While Frisco follows a weary pediatric surgeon tasked with caring for a 15-year-old patient, and The Holdovers focuses on a cynical boarding school teacher forced to supervise a student over Christmas break, the filing alleges the structural and dialogue-level parallels go beyond mere coincidence.
Payne’s Defense and the ‘Merlusse’ Connection
Alexander Payne has previously dismissed the allegations in no uncertain terms. In August 2024, the director characterized the claims as “kooky” and “the stupidest thing in the world.” Payne has maintained that the true inspiration for The Holdovers was not Frisco, but rather the 1935 French film Merlusse, directed by Marcel Pagnol, which also features a strict teacher staying behind with students during a holiday.
Despite the controversy, The Holdovers enjoyed critical and commercial success, earning five Academy Award nominations. The film eventually took home the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for Da’Vine Joy Randolph’s performance. Stephenson’s credits on high-profile family films like Luca had already established his reputation in the industry before he first brought these accusations to the WGA earlier this year.
The transition from an internal industry grievance to a federal courtroom highlights the ongoing complexities of protecting intellectual property in Hollywood, particularly regarding scripts that circulate for years without being produced. The court will now determine if the similarities between the two stories constitute a breach of copyright or if the film’s origins remain firmly rooted in Payne’s cited historical influences.
