Alison Brie and Dave Franco’s much-hyped indie horror film Together is facing serious legal heat just months out from its theatrical release, after the filmmakers behind a little-known 2023 feature alleged the A-lister couple stole their idea.
As reported in Variety and Deadline: the lawsuit, filed in California this week, accuses Brie and Franco – as well as their agency WME, the film’s Australian writer-director Michael Shanks, and US distributor NEON – of lifting the central concept and major plot points from Better Half, an earlier independently produced feature.
The claim is that Together isn’t just similar to the indie film – it’s allegedly a ‘near-verbatim’ copy.
According to the suit (you can read it here), the central conceit of horror flick Together, in which a man and woman find themselves physically fused together, bears striking resemblance to Better Half, a satirical rom-com from first-time filmmaker Patrick Henry Phelan.
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Together v Better Half
Produced by StudioFest, Better Half had a quiet run on the US festival circuit in 2023, screening at the Brooklyn Film Festival.
But when Together debuted at Sundance 2025 and promptly sold to NEON for a reported USD $17 million after a bidding war, the producers behind Better Half (Jess Jacklin and Charles Beale) were reportedly ‘stunned into silence’ during the festival screening.
‘Scene after scene confirmed that Defendants did not simply take “stock ideas” or “scenes a faire” but stole virtually every unique aspect of Better Half’s copyrightable expression,’ the suit alleges.
StudioFest, the only named plaintiff, claims Better Half was pitched directly to Franco and Brie in 2020, via their reps at WME. An email offering the pair the lead roles was allegedly met with a polite pass from Franco’s agent.
Three years later, Together entered production with a remarkably similar premise and allegedly several scene-for-scene similarities, including a sequence involving the protagonists hiding their genital attachment from a third character, and a finale involving a vinyl copy of the Spice Girls’ album, Spiceworld.
The plaintiffs also allege the couple turned down Better Half not out of lack of interest, but because they wanted to produce a version of it themselves – packaged by WME with in-house talent. The suit describes this as an ‘intentional scheme’ to claim ownership of the idea.
WME has called the allegations ‘frivolous and without merit,’ pledging to ‘vigorously defend’ the parties involved.
Together – which marks another collaboration between real-life couple Brie and Franco, known for The Rental and Somebody I Used to Know – was among the most sought-after titles at Sundance this year, with NEON nabbing it for North American release on 1 August 2025.
Australian writer-director Michael Shanks (Rebooted, Time Trap) is also named as a defendant in the suit.
For now, the court will have to determine whether Together is a case of parallel thinking, a borrowed vibe, or a direct copy-paste job.
Together is coming to Australian cinemas on 31 July 2025, after debuting at the Sydney Film Festival. Better Half is not currently available to watch anywhere.
