The lawsuit alleges their new film \u2018stole\u2019 ideas from another movie.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-name” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”Black Han Sans|||on|||||” text_text_color=”#000000″ header_4_font=”|||on|||||” header_4_text_align=”center” text_orientation=”center” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]
Words by Bonnie McLaren<\/strong><\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/05\/imago806376225-scaled.jpg” alt=”Jennifer Aniston” title_text=”TOGETHER Premiere at the Sundance Film Festival 2025″ force_fullwidth=”on” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″] Dave Franco and his wife Alison Brie are being sued for $17million. Why? It\u2019s all because of their new movie, Together<\/em>, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. The plot of the horror film follows a couple, played by Franco and Brie, whose bodies end up conjoined after an argument.<\/p>\n And while it might be a worst nightmare for squeamish moviegoers, the film was clearly a hit. Together<\/em> has received a coveted 100% on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, and there was reportedly a bidding war for the film, with distributor Neon buying the rights for $17 million.<\/p>\n But now Franco and Brie are facing legal trouble, as they have been accused of ripping off 2023 film, Better Half<\/em>. Brie, Franco, and the film\u2019s writer and director Michael Shanks were named in a lawsuit earlier this month alleging copyright infringement from the team behind the indie flick. Other defendants in the suit include WME \u2013 who represent Shanks, Brie and Franco \u2013 and Neon. StudioFest are the sole plaintiff in the suit, the production company that writer and director Patrick Henry Phelan made the film with.<\/p>\n So, let\u2019s break down the lawsuit\u2026<\/p>\n It claims Phelan pitched a script for Franco and Brie to play the lead roles back in 2020, which was turned down by the couple and their agents WME. According to the suit, Franco\u2019s agent responded saying: \u2018Dave is going to pass, but thank you for thinking of him\u2019. The lawsuit continues to allege it was rejected as \u2018they wanted to produce the film themselves and have WME package the project with one of the agency\u2019s own writers\u2019.<\/p>\n Despite Franco and Brie passing on starring in Better Half<\/em>, it was released in 2023, with Connor Paolo and Dianne Doan in the main roles. It was also marketed as a romantic comedy, rather than a horror, when it appeared at the Brooklyn Film Festival.<\/p>\n The lawsuit claims producers on Better Half<\/em>, Jess Jacklin and Charles Beale, were surprised when they went to watch Together<\/em> at Sundance. \u2018As the audience laughed and cheered, Jacklin and Beale sat in stunned silence, their worst nightmare unfolding,\u2019 the suit states. \u2018Scene after scene confirmed that Defendants did not simply take \u201cstock ideas\u201d or \u201cscenes a faire\u201d but stole virtually every unique aspect of\u00a0Better Half<\/em>\u2019s copyrightable expression.\u2019<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”custom-quote” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_font=”Libre Bodoni|||on|||||” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#333333″ header_2_font_size=”40px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″] The lawsuit then goes on to claim there are many similarities between the movies, claiming \u2018defendants lifted wholesale creative elements, including but not limited to, plot, themes, characters, dialogue, mood, setting, pace, and sequence of events\u2019.<\/p>\n \u2018In both Better Half<\/em> and Together<\/em>, the main characters struggle to navigate daily life as their physical attachment progresses and they start to control each other\u2019s body parts,\u2019 the complaint alleges. \u2018While at first they desperately search for ways to detach their bodies \u2014 from medical intervention to chainsaws \u2014 by the end, they resign themselves to their conjoined existence.\u2019<\/p>\n It also claims that the film rips off \u2018Better Half<\/em>\u2019s explicit reference to Plato\u2019s\u00a0Symposium. \u2018In both works, Plato\u2019s\u00a0Symposium\u00a0serves as a thematic vehicle to explore the idea that humans were once whole but were split apart, leaving them searching for their missing half,\u2019 the suit adds. \u2018Indeed,\u00a0Together<\/em>\u00a0copies\u00a0Better Half<\/em>\u2019s explicit reference to Plato\u2019s\u00a0Symposium\u00a0in a virtually verbatim way.\u2019<\/p>\n The lawsuit alleges that one scene in particular \u2013 when the couple become fused after sex \u2013 is incredibly similar to a scene in Better Half<\/em>. \u2018Both works feature a strikingly similar bathroom sequence where the protagonists become attached at the genitals and attempt to hide their intimate encounter from a minor character waiting just outside,\u2019 the lawsuit continues. \u2018This is not a generic comedic trope \u2013 it is a highly specific, artistic choice that plays out in a nearly identical fashion with both works framing the scene using a visual shot of the minor character\u2019s feet peeking out from just outside the door.\u2019<\/p>\n Spoiler alert: the lawsuit also says both films have the same finale. \u2018Both works end in the same way, with the couple pulling out a vinyl record of the Spice Girls album \u2013 Spiceworld \u2013 in the scene where they accept their fate,\u2019 the lawsuit claims.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for WME has called the lawsuit \u2018frivolous and without merit\u2019, adding, \u2018The facts in this case are clear and we plan to vigorously defend ourselves.\u2019<\/p>\n Together<\/em> is set to be released in the US on 30 July. The plot for the film reads: \u2018Years into their relationship, Tim and Millie (Dave Franco and Alison Brie) find themselves at a crossroads as they move to the country, abandoning all that is familiar in their lives except each other. With tensions already flaring, a nightmarish encounter with a mysterious, unnatural force threatens to corrupt their lives, their love, and their flesh.\u2019 \u00a0<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider color=”#111111″ divider_position=”center” divider_weight=”2px” module_class=”custom-divider” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”0px||0px||false|false” custom_padding=”0px||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-texts” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|||on|||||” text_orientation=”center” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″] Photo: <\/b>IMAGO<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A lawsuit alleges their new film \u2018stole\u2019 ideas from another movie.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":10178,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature"],"acf":[],"modified_by":"guestgrazia","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10177"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10177\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10184,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10177\/revisions\/10184"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The lawsuit claims Together ‘stole virtually every unique aspect of Better Half\u2019s copyrightable expression’.<\/h2>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]