Actor-director Dave Franco and actress Alison Brie are being sued over their upcoming horror-comedy film “Together.” Indie filmmakers claimed that the movie copies plot elements, themes and even specific scenes from their 2023 project, “Better Half.”
According to the lawsuit filed by StudioFest cofounders Jess Jacklin and Charles Irving Beale, the two were attending the 2025 Sundance Film Festival when they began receiving what they describe as “a flurry of calls and text messages” from colleagues and friends.
The messages highlighted notable similarities between “Together,” which premiered at Sundance, and their earlier project.
Claims of the storylines being nearly identical
“Better Half,” written in 2019 and released in 2023, centers on a couple who wake up physically fused together. The lawsuit alleged that “Together,” which follows the same premise, borrows not just the plot, but themes of codependency, specific dialogue and visuals.
Both films reportedly include scenes where the couple accepts their fate and plays the Spice Girls’ “Spiceworld” vinyl album.
The lawsuit also claimed both projects quote a rare passage from Plato’s “Symposium,” a philosophical allegory about soulmates being split into two bodies and reunited.
Script allegedly sent to Franco and Brie’s agents
StudioFest claimed that in 2020, their casting director shared the script of “Better Half” with Franco and Brie’s agents at WME Entertainment. The hope was to cast the actors, who are married, in the project, but they reportedly declined.
Eventually, StudioFest moved forward with other actors. Meanwhile, “Together” was announced in February 2024.
The lawsuit accused Franco, Brie and their team of copyright infringement. Other defendants include director Michael Shanks, producer Emma Tillinger Koskoff, WME and Neon — the company that acquired “Together” at Sundance for a reported $17 million.
In a statement to Variety, WME called the lawsuit “frivolous and without merit,” and said it plans to defend against the allegations vigorously.
“Together” is scheduled for release on July 30.
