Da’Vine Joy Randolph may have won Best Supporting Actress at the 96th Academy Awards, but the film Winter break is currently the subject of intense controversy. British screenwriter behind the Pixar film LucaSimon Stephenson accuses Alexander Payne’s film of plagiarism and claims to have proof of it “really overwhelming”.
“The two scenarios are identical”
At the heart of this question are two films. The first, Winter breakwas nominated in five Oscar categories, including best film and best original screenplay (The Oscar eventually won Anatomy of a fall). She ultimately walked away with a golden statuette, given to Da’Vine actress Joy Randolph for a supporting role.
The second project is called Fresco. Dating back to 2013, it it didn’t find a producer and therefore never saw the light of day. It was he who was allegedly plagiarized by the director of Winter Break, according to screenwriter Simon Stephenson.
The latter officially seized the screenwriters union (WGA) in Januarystating that the plots of Winter Break and his project, Friscothey were “identical from a legal point of view”according to a survey conducted by Variety. The American magazine revealed an excerpt of the message sent by the screenwriter to the union on January 12:
“ I worked as a screenwriter for 20 years – in my home country of the UK, before coming to the US – so I’m very aware that people can often have surprisingly similar ideas and that sometimes certain elements can be “borrowed” , etc… It’s just not that’s not the case here. Both scenarios are legally identical. »
Plagiarism “line by line”.
Director Alexander Payne’s first film, Winter break was released in French theaters on December 13th. This Christmas comedy depicts attempts at coexistence between a pedantic professor stranded during the Christmas holidays, a cheeky student and a grieving cook at an American boarding school in the 1970s. As for Frisco, follows a bitter doctor forced to care for a 15-year-old patient. As evidenced by this excerpt transmitted by Assigned from the sources of Varietysays Stephenson “be able to prove beyond any possible doubt ” That Winter break :
it was plagiarized line by line from one of my popular unproduced screenplays. (…) By “significant completeness” I mean literally All : the story, the characters, the structure, the scenes, the dialogue, everything. (…) Most of the most important scenes are unchanged and they even remain visibly identical in their arrangement ».
As stated Assignedthe scenario of Winter break enjoys numerous awards at international festivals, from the National Board of Review to the Satellite Awards and the Online Film Critics Society Awards.
For now, neither the WGA nor director Alexander Payne did not react to these accusations. Continues.
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Source: Madmoizelle
Mary Crossley is an author at “The Fashion Vibes”. She is a seasoned journalist who is dedicated to delivering the latest news to her readers. With a keen sense of what’s important, Mary covers a wide range of topics, from politics to lifestyle and everything in between.
