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Alison Brie and her husband, Dave Franco, are being sued by the production company StudioFest for over $17 million for copyright infringement. The studio filed the lawsuit on May 13 in California federal court, claiming the couple's upcoming body horror film, Together, has been allegedly copied from their 2023 indie film Better Half, which was written and directed by Patrick Henry Phelan.
Along with Brie and Franco, who are the producers of Together, their talent agency, WME, Michael Shanks, who is the director and writer of the upcoming film, and the film's distributor, Neon, have been named defendants in the lawsuit.
The lawsuit claims the casting director of Better Half sent the script and a synopsis to Alison Brie and Dave Franco's agents at WME in August 2020, hoping to cast the two actors. The agents had allegedly rejected the offer. StudioFest have now accused the makers of Together of allegedly lifting multiple elements from their 2023 film.
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"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 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," the suit states.
According to The Independent's report, on May 13, WME's spokesperson responded to the accusations and stated that the lawsuit is "without merit."
"This lawsuit is frivolous and without merit. The facts in this case are clear and we plan to vigorously defend ourselves," the spokesperson said.
More details on the copyright infringement lawsuit involving Alison Brie and Dave Franco
The lawsuit states that Better Half producers Jess Jacklin and Charles Beale had heard about Together's plot and to check the similarities, attended the 2025 Sundance Film Festival on January 30, 2025. Calling it their "worst nightmare," the suit states the producers confirmed that the two films are allegedly similar.
"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 à faire" but stole virtually every unique aspect of Better Half's copyrightable expression," the suit stated.
According to the suit, the endings of the two films are also similar.
"Both works end in the same way, with the couple pulling out a vinyl record of the Spice Girls album—Spiceworld—in the scene where they accept their fate," the lawsuit stated.
According to Variety's January 29 report, the independent film production and distribution company, Neon, bought the distribution rights of Together after it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. A source told the media outlet that the body horror film was sold for approximately $17 million.
Alison Brie and Dave Franco's film Together will be released in theatres on August 1, 2025.
