Alexander Payne sued over alleged copying in The Holdovers

Screenwriter Simon Stephenson has sued director Alexander Payne in a US federal court, alleging that the 2023 film *The Holdovers* copied his unproduced screenplay *Frisco*, according to TheWrap. The case turns an accusation Stephenson made publicly in 2024 into a copyright dispute before a court; it does not establish that plagiarism occurred.

TheWrap reports that the lawsuit also names *The Holdovers* screenwriter David Hemingson, producer Mark Johnson and several companies involved with the film. Stephenson alleges that Payne read *Frisco* in 2013 and again in 2019. The complaint claims there are 46 corresponding incidents across the two works, including 24 in the same order, TheWrap says. Those alleged similarities have not been tested in court.

Payne has previously said that the 1935 French film *Merlusse* helped inspire his idea for *The Holdovers*, according to TheWrap. It also reports that he hired Hemingson after reading a television pilot Hemingson had written in a similar setting. That account offers another explanation of the film’s origins but does not resolve Stephenson’s allegation.

Stephenson is seeking damages and a court order preventing further exploitation of the film, Nieuws.nl reports. No such order has been reported as granted.