A fascinating read. I can't comment on the accusation of plagiarism itself, but I find the background interesting and the response by the WGA perhaps troubling -- but I know nothing of the rules governing the WGA.
https://variety.com/2024/film/news/the-holdovers-accused-plagiarism-luca...
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I saw the side-by-side scene list of both scripts yesterday, Tucker Teague. Some of the scenes are identical.
There's a quote in the article that says, "'This is a case that’s going to have everybody trembling, because you can or soon can just push buttons and put scripts into AI programs and compare everything,'" I'm guessing we'll see more and more plagiarism cases as more writers, producers, etc. use AI to write/help write scripts.
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Wow, that's terrible. It sounds like Stephenson is in the right here. I don't like hearing that the WGA wouldn't help because it was a spec script. I just saw another post on here where people are talking about copyright. I've been registering all my work through WGA, but it sounds like that doesn't help you in a situation where someone stole your work. I guess I better dive deeper into all the law sides of things.
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Dustin Richardson I was only registering through WGA but recently I added official copyright. Not only is it more substantial but copyright in a sense "extends" to much of the world via agreements between countries. I doubt WGA registration means much outside of the US. Copyright is more expensive but they do have a way to register multiple similar works simultaneously for a very reasonable cost.
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Maurice Vaughan AI will especially become and issue when its used to create screenplays like "movie X meets movie Y" etc.
Hmm, I rip-off Die Hard beat by beat for my spec script, which got me an agent.
Anyways, this sounds like rich ppl problems. Payne only steals from the best :)
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WGA is perhaps more accustomed to handling arbitration for who gets credit on films with multiple waves of writers. Sounds like a case for legal action.
In any case, registering with WGA or copyright office is fine, but the chain of emails and meetings is what will be important in a court case.
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Isn't this David Hemingson risking his career by doing this? Even if legal action comes to naught, I feel the issue will hang over his head
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David C. Velasco Simon Stephenson is the writer who has brought it to light. David Hemingson is the credited writer on The Holdovers. They are both in a real pickle here. On one hand, Stephenson is sticking his neck out very far, but from the looks of what we've seen, seems justified in doing so. Don't think anyone can hold anything against him or gaslight him for being clearly plagiarized, unless something else is proved or comes to light. For Hemingson, his rep is more at risk, despite this seeming to be an Alexander Payne issue as Payne had access to Stephenson's script on multiple occasions and likely would've been the one who brought those materials (even subconsciously) to the project. Hemingson's still guilty by association. Although in the end, all parties really have such great credits and solid careers, it's hard to imagine this derailing any of them, but for Stephenson, watching his work achieve such widespread awards recognition and acclaim without credit for it is fairly brutal and psychologically must be quite devastating