Actor Dave Franco and his wife, actress Alison Brie, have been hit with a copyright infringement lawsuit concerning their new horror film, “Together,” which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on Jan. 26.
According to the lawsuit, screenwriter Patrick Phelan conceived the idea for “Better Half” in 2011 after reading Plato’s Socratic dialogue “The Symposium,” later completing the film’s screenplay in 2019.
StudioFest claims it offered Franco, 39, and Brie, 42, leading roles in the film in 2020, sending the project’s script and synopsis to the couple’s talent agency, William Morris Endeavor Entertainment (WME). However, the indie company states the actors passed up the offer to star in the film.
“In January 2025 [StudioFest] learned that Franco and Brie were producing and starring in a virtually identical film entitled ‘Together,’ written and directed by another WME client—Michael Shanks,” the complaint reads.
StudioFest alleges Franco and Brie rejected the company’s offer because they wanted to produce the film themselves.
“‘Together’ is a blatant rip-off of ‘Better Half.’ Both works center around a couple who wake up to find their bodies physically fused together as a metaphor for codependency,” the complaint alleges.
“The similarities do not end there. Defendants lifted wholesale creative elements, including but not limited to, plot, themes, characters, dialogue, mood, setting, pace, and sequence of events.”
WME and Shanks are also named in the lawsuit alongside the indie distribution company NEON Rated, which bought “Together” for $17 million after a days-long bidding war following its Sundance premiere.
“Together” was later screened at the South by Southwest Film & TV Festival on March 7 and is expected to hit theaters sometime this summer.
A WME spokesperson told The Epoch Times via email that StudioFest’s lawsuit “is frivolous and without merit.”
“The facts in this case are clear and we plan to vigorously defend ourselves,” the spokesperson said.
Dave Franco—the younger brother of actor James Franco—and his wife got married in March 2017. The couple has worked together on several other films, including “The Little Hours” (2017) and “The Disaster Artist” (2017).
The “Neighbors” star also directed Brie in the 2020 horror film “The Rental,” starring Dan Stevens, and the 2023 romance comedy “Somebody I Used to Know.”
