Alison Brie & Dave Franco Lawsuit Over ‘Together’ Film

Alison Brie and Dave Franco are defendants in a copyright infringement lawsuit filed in May 2025 by production company StudioFest, which alleges that their 2025 body-horror film Together copied an earlier screenplay called Better Half. The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, also names writer-director Michael Shanks, talent agency William Morris Endeavor, and distributor Neon.1Deadline. Together Lawsuit Dave Franco Alison Brie The defendants deny the allegations, and after a federal judge declined to throw the case out in February 2026, the parties are now in discovery.2Cardozo AELJ. The Together Lawsuit What Will Matter After the Motion to Dismiss

The Two Films at the Center of the Case

Better Half is a surreal romantic comedy written and directed by Patrick Henry Phelan. He conceived the idea in 2011 after reading Plato’s Symposium, wrote the screenplay in 2019, and StudioFest optioned it that same year. The film follows a hopeless romantic and a commitment-averse free spirit who have a one-night stand and wake up physically fused. It premiered at the 2023 Brooklyn Film Festival.3Brooklyn Film Festival. Better Half

Together, directed by Australian filmmaker Michael Shanks, stars Franco and Brie as a couple who move to a remote Australian town and, after falling into a supernatural cavern, begin to physically merge.4Time. Together Ending Explained Neon acquired the film at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival for a reported $17 million, one of the richest deals in the festival’s history, and released it theatrically on July 30, 2025.5Variety. Sundance Together Horror Film Dave Franco Alison Brie Sells Neon

What StudioFest Is Claiming

The complaint, filed by Miller Barondess attorneys Daniel Miller and Samantha Rifkin, alleges that the defendants “stole virtually every unique aspect of Better Half‘s copyrightable expression.”6Variety. Alison Brie Dave Franco Together Copyright Lawsuit WME Two threads carry the case: how the defendants supposedly got hold of the script, and the specific overlaps between the finished films.

The Alleged Access

On August 19, 2020, StudioFest’s casting director Lois Drabkin emailed WME agents T.J. Bernardy and Jessica Kovacevic, who represented Franco and Brie, with an offer for the couple to star in Better Half. The email attached the full screenplay. Bernardy replied the next day that Franco would pass.7The Wrap. Together Movie Alison Brie Dave Franco Sued Better Half Copyright Infringement StudioFest alleges that Franco and Brie passed because they “wanted to produce the film themselves and have WME package the project with one of the agency’s own writers,” and that WME then introduced Franco to Shanks, another WME client, who pitched what became Together.6Variety. Alison Brie Dave Franco Together Copyright Lawsuit WME

The Alleged Similarities

The complaint catalogs parallels it says go beyond a shared premise:

  • Both films center on a couple who wake up physically fused, used as a metaphor for codependency.
  • In each, one lead is a teacher eager to commit and the other a punk artist looking for a break, with commitment issues tied to parental trauma.
  • Both reference the myth from Plato’s Symposium about two-faced, eight-limbed humans split apart by Zeus, in what the complaint calls a “near verbatim” treatment.
  • Both include a bathroom scene where the protagonists become attached at the genitals and hide from a minor character, framed by a shot of feet under the door.
  • Both use rodents stuck together as a visual motif foreshadowing the couple’s fate.
  • Both couples abandon separation, accept their conjoined state, and mark the moment by playing the Spice Girls’ Spiceworld on vinyl.

StudioFest producers Jess Jacklin and Charles Beale say they noticed the similarities when they watched Together at Sundance.6Variety. Alison Brie Dave Franco Together Copyright Lawsuit WME Attorney Dan Miller told the New York Post that “the similarities between the two works are staggering and defy any innocent explanation.”8New York Post. Dave Franco Alison Brie Sued for Copyright Infringement Over Film Together

StudioFest is seeking actual and statutory damages, disgorgement of profits, and a preliminary and permanent injunction to block distribution of Together. The complaint references the $17 million Sundance sale but does not name a specific damages figure. A jury trial has been demanded.1Deadline. Together Lawsuit Dave Franco Alison Brie

How the Defendants Are Responding

The defense turns on independent creation. Shanks says he completed a first draft of Together in 2019 and registered it that year with the Writers Guild of America. In October 2020, roughly two months after StudioFest emailed the Better Half script to WME, he received development funding from Screen Australia to continue work.9The Wrap. Together Copyright Infringement Lawsuit Michael Shanks Response In 2022, his WME agent introduced him to Franco, and he pitched the script over Zoom.10Collider. Together Legal Battle Better Half

Shanks called the allegations “entirely untrue” and “devastating,” saying the screenplay is “deeply based on my own lived experience,” including a 16-year relationship and the loss of his father at a young age.11IndieWire. Together Director Michael Shanks Statement Idea Theft Claim Neon and WME, in a joint statement, said StudioFest made “zero outreach” to verify the timelines before filing and asserted that “almost all of the alleged similarities were in Shanks’ original 2019 script.”12Deadline. Together Lawsuit Michael Shanks Neon WME Statements

Defense attorney Nicolas Jampol argued in a May 21, 2025, letter that the concept of a couple stuck together is an “unprotectable idea” that “predates all of our clients and has been explored in many films, television shows and other fictional works.” He described Better Half as “light and comedic” and Together as a supernatural body-horror thriller, calling the two “not remotely similar,” and warned that the defendants would seek attorneys’ fees.13Variety. Dave Franco Alison Brie Together Lawyer Slams Plagiarism Suit Miller responded by challenging the defense to produce the 2019 WGA registration and subsequent drafts, and insisted the suit targets “original expression” of specific sequences rather than abstract ideas.14Sydney Morning Herald. Not Remotely Similar Lawyer for Aussie Film Slams Copyright Lawsuit

What the Court Has Ruled So Far

The defendants moved to dismiss the complaint, arguing that the alleged similarities were unprotectable as a matter of law. On February 20, 2026, Judge Josephine L. Staton denied the motion. She acknowledged that some individual elements, such as the general concept of conjoined lovers and references to public-domain material like Plato’s Symposium, may not be protectable on their own. But she ruled that StudioFest had “plausibly alleged enough protectable similarities in plot, sequence of events, and theme” to move forward, pointing specifically to the bathroom concealment scene, the drawings foreshadowing fusion, the awkward proposal scenes, and the recurring Spice Girls vinyl motif.2Cardozo AELJ. The Together Lawsuit What Will Matter After the Motion to Dismiss

Where the Case Stands

The case is now in discovery. A scheduling order issued in May 2026 set a fact discovery cutoff of February 12, 2027, with expert reports due in spring 2027 and a final pretrial conference scheduled for July 16, 2027. Judge Staton has also ordered the parties into private mediation by April 16, 2027.15PACER Monitor. Studiofest LLC v. William Morris Endeavor Entertainment, LLC et al No trial date has been set. Discovery will center on the factual core of the case: whether the defendants had access to the Better Half screenplay, and whether Together was genuinely created independently.