Alexander Payne sued over alleged similarities between The Holdovers and Frisco

Alexander Payne was sued in California federal court on 28 October 2026 by screenwriter Simon Stephenson, who alleges that the film The Holdovers borrowed substantial elements from his unproduced screenplay Frisco. The Hollywood Reporter reported the filing; the alleged copying has not been established by a court.

Stephenson is seeking unspecified damages and a court order that, if granted, would bar further exploitation of The Holdovers, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The suit also names The Holdovers screenwriter David Hemingson, producer Mark Johnson, production companies and distributors as defendants.

What Stephenson alleges about the scripts

Variety described Frisco, written in 2012–13, as a story set at a children’s hospital about a dispirited doctor caring for a teenage patient. The Holdovers follows a boarding-school teacher looking after students over the holidays. Stephenson’s complaint argues that similarities extend beyond that broad premise to the works’ plot, characters and sequence of events, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The complaint also points to what Stephenson calls a distinctive script-writing habit and a reference to a medical conference in The Holdovers dialogue, The Hollywood Reporter reported. Those details form part of his argument that the film drew from Frisco; their significance in a copyright case has yet to be determined.

Payne’s earlier response and the dispute’s history

Payne denied the earlier plagiarism allegation at the Sarajevo Film Festival, calling it ‘the stupidest thing in the world,’ Variety reported. The Hollywood Reporter said Payne has described the 1935 French film Merlusse, which also involves a teacher caring for boarding-school students, as an influence. Stephenson’s lawsuit acknowledges that possible source for the premise but alleges Frisco supplied the screenplay’s structure.

Stephenson previously brought the dispute to the Writers Guild of America, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The guild concluded that copyright infringement claims were outside its arbitration remit; the report said the outcome of that earlier process remained unclear. The new federal lawsuit places the dispute before a court, where the claimed similarities and alleged access to Frisco can be contested.

The case concerns a film that received five Academy Award nominations in 2024, including one for its screenplay, The Hollywood Reporter reported. Copyright law protects a work’s particular expression rather than general story ideas, making the distinction between a shared premise and allegedly copied expression central to Stephenson’s claim.