Is Dave Franco and Alison Brie’s latest horror film, 'Together' a rip-off of an earlier movie? Explained

Together opens in U.S. cinemas on July 30, 2025, after selling to Neon for a reported $17 million out of Sundance. Yet days before its wide release, the body‑horror title, directed by Australian newcomer Michael Shanks and produced by its stars Dave Franco and Alison Brie, faces an explosive copyright lawsuit.

Indie outfit StudioFest claims the thriller copies its 2023 festival film Better Half, which also tracks a couple who become physically fused as a metaphor for co‑dependency. The 27‑page complaint alleges that Shanks’ script was developed only after Franco and Brie declined an August 2020 offer to headline Better Half.

It seeks an injunction, profit disgorgement, and unspecified damages. The defendants insist that Together predates any pitch and vow to fight the case. Below is a detailed look at the allegations, the evidence each side is brandishing, and what it could mean for the summer release.

Is Together too close to Better Half for comfort?

StudioFest’s lawsuit says the overlap extends far beyond the high‑concept premise. Filed in Los Angeles federal court on May 13, 2025, the complaint lists more than a dozen “virtual replicas,” from a Plato’s Symposium monologue on soul‑mates to a bathroom‑stall gag in which the conjoined leads hide their predicament.

The filing even cites a closing beat that deploys a Spice Girls vinyl as “an emotional grace note”, a prop it claims appears in both pictures. As per the Courthouse News Service report dated May 13, 2025, StudioFest wrote,

“As the audience laughed and cheered, Jacklin and Beale sat in stunned silence, their worst nightmare unfolding. 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,.”

Behind those claims is a paper trail that the plaintiffs maintain will prove access. Emails reproduced in the complaint show a WME casting coordinator forwarding the Better Half script and synopsis to Franco and Brie’s agents on August 18, 2020, and receiving a polite pass two days later.

StudioFest argues that the timeline undercuts any assertion that Shanks’ screenplay predates its material. It also notes that both films deploy the bodily merger as a “punishing stand‑in for toxic attachment,” sharing near‑identical pacing: discovery of affliction, frantic medical search, and final grim acceptance.

Whether those parallels rise to “substantial similarity” in protected expression is now for the court to decide, a threshold that historically requires more than a shared logline.

What the lawsuit says and what it doesn’t

To bolster its case, StudioFest highlights six allegedly copied sequences and provides sworn declarations from Better Half writer‑director Patrick Henry Phelan and its producers Jess Jacklin and Charles Beale. One declaration contends the Sundance screening of Together left the trio “in stunned silence” as scene after scene felt lifted from their film.

The complaint also points to shared character archetypes: a commitment‑phobic musician opposite an over‑attached partner, plus a minor role whose sole function is to add comic relief by almost discovering the couple’s predicament.

Legal experts note that copyright law protects specific dialogue, scene structure, and character design, not abstract ideas like “a fused couple.” Courts often apply the “extrinsic/intrinsic” test, dissecting objective similarities before considering a lay observer’s impression.

Here, StudioFest must prove that audiences would find Together and Better Half materially indistinguishable in their protectable elements. The plaintiffs also plead access, arguing Franco and Brie’s agents had the materials and motive, claiming the stars rejected the offer to self‑produce a more commercial version through WME’s packaging arm.

As per the Entertainment Weekly report dated May 15, 2025, StudioFest counsel Dan Miller argued,

“The similarities between the two works are staggering and defy any innocent explanation. We intend to hold the defendants accountable, and look forward to trial.”

Yet the filing omits one inconvenient fact the defense quickly seized on: Shanks registered an early draft of Together with the Writers Guild of America West in 2019, months before any alleged pitch.

If that registration is authenticated, StudioFest must show that the draft lacked the contested material or was substantively altered post‑2020. Copyright battles often hinge on such documentary timestamps, and discovery will likely revolve around script revisions, hard‑drive metadata, and Screen Australia development grants Shanks received in October 2020.

How Franco, Brie, and director Michael Shanks are defending Together

The defendants have dismissed the action in unusually blunt terms. A spokesperson for William Morris Endeavor told Entertainment Weekly,

“This lawsuit is frivolous and without merit...The facts in this case are clear, and we plan to vigorously defend ourselves.”

NEON, which plans to open Together on more than 2,000 screens, echoed that stance and warned of counterclaims for attorneys’ fees if the suit proceeds.

Shanks, for his part, issued a lengthy personal statement. As per The Independent report dated June 18, 2025, the filmmaker called the accusation,

“deeply upsetting...entirely untrue,”

adding,

“I’ve been with my partner for over 16 years … That entanglement of identity, love, and co-dependence is what inspired Together.”

He reiterated that the WGA registration proves independent creation and noted that Screen Australia funded development a full year before any WME correspondence cited by the plaintiffs.

In a separate interview with The Wrap on June 19, 2025, Shanks expanded on the movie’s autobiographical roots:

“deeply based on my own lived experience”

He said, describing how he pitched it to Franco in late 2022 after struggling to secure financing. Franco and Brie, meanwhile, maintain that their real‑life partnership was essential to handle the film’s demanding physical prosthetics and long days “literally attached” to one another on set.

While legal skirmishes play out, NEON’s marketing machine has leaned into the controversy. Viral posters jokingly equate the film’s forced proximity to high‑profile relationship scandals, and a #TogetherContest encourages fans to propose in theaters, promising a Las Vegas wedding to the winning couple.

Debate over originality may thus boost visibility, though an injunction could upend release plans if the court sees merit.

The bottom line

Together has become the latest test case in Hollywood’s long‑running friction between high‑concept overlap and protectable expression. StudioFest bears the burden of proving not just that two films share a hook, but that the newer work copies the older one’s protected details.

The defense counters with earlier script registrations and personal‑experience claims. Whatever the verdict, the suit underscores a larger industry cautionary tale: when pitches circulate through talent agencies that also package projects, allegations of idea theft may be only a festival premiere away.

Stay tuned for more updates.