The comedy Those who remain (French title of the film The Holdovers), nominated in five categories at the Oscars, was accused of plagiarism by a British screenwriter, according to Variety magazine.
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These accusations, revealed Saturday evening on the eve of the ceremony, cast doubt on the film by Alexander Payne, one of the most serious competitors facing “Anatomy of a Fall” for the Oscar for best original screenplay.
Screenwriter Simon Stephenson, who notably co-wrote the script for the Pixar cartoon Luca, wrote to the writers’ union (WGA) in January to complain about plagiarism, according to documents published by Variety.
He accuses Z of taking key elements of the plot from “Frisco,” a screenplay that never made it into a film, and of copying certain scenes “line for line.”
The screenwriter claims to be able to prove his accusations, with a file made up of “truly damning” evidence.
Those who remain tells the story of a pedantic and cantankerous professor, stuck for Christmas vacation with an insolent student and a grieving cook in an American boarding school in the 1970s.
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Frisco was centered on a doctor tired of existence, forced to take care of a young patient of 15 years old.
Alexander Payne and the screenwriter of Those who remainDavid Hemingson, declined to comment, according to Variety.
Mr. Hemingson is the only screenwriter credited for Those who remain . But Mr. Payne has previously explained that he helped develop the script, and that it was inspired by a 1930s French film discovered at a festival several years ago.
“I’m very aware that people often have surprisingly similar ideas and sometimes it’s possible to borrow a few elements etc. This is not the case here,” Stephenson wrote to the WGA, according to Variety. “Both scenarios are legally identical and riddled with the same unique elements.” Mr. Stephenson, for example, points out the similarities between an early scene in the film, where the protagonist is reprimanded in his superior’s office for having wronged a politician.
In Those who remain, this moment comes because the professor has graded the son of an American senator poorly. In Friscothe doctor calls an American congresswoman, who is the mother of a patient, an idiot.
Those who remain is in the running for five Oscars on Sunday: best film, best actor for Paul Giamatti, best supporting actress for Da’Vine Joy Randolph, best original screenplay and best editing.
