With Michael Shanks, the writer and director of the next body horror film TogetherThe actors-productors Alison Brie and Dave Franco were appointed defendants in a trial alleging a violation of the copyright.
The other accused of the prosecution, deposited on Tuesday, include WME, which represents Shanks, Brie and Franco, and the distributor of the film Neon, which extended the rights of the Sundance Film Festival for $ 17 million in the largest transaction this year in Park City.
The trial (reading it here) alleys that Together is a “blatant scam” of Better halfAn independent in 2023 written and directed by Patrick Henry Phelan. Phelan, a former deputy director of New York and a graduate of the USC MFA, made the film as its beginnings through the production company Studiofest, the only applicant of the pursuit.
A WME spokesperson described the “frivolous and baseless trial, adding:” The facts in this case are clear and we plan to defend ourselves vigorously “. We also contacted the neon to comment.
According to the file, the script for Better half was launched in Franco and Brie in August 2020, when a casting director sent the equipment to his agents to WME and approached them for the main roles. It is alleged that Brie and Franco rejected the offer because “they wanted to produce the film themselves and that WME packs the project with one of the agency’s own writers”. StudioFest realized that Franco and Brie produced and played in Together In January 2025, before the film’s launch of the film.
“”Together is a blatant scam of Better half“Indicates the costume.” The two works are focused on a couple who wakes up to find their bodies physically merged as a metaphor for co -depence. The similarities do not stop there. The defendants have raised creative elements roughly, including, but without limiting themselves, the intrigue, the themes, the characters, the dialogue, the mood, the framework, the rhythm and the sequence of events. »»
Studiofest requests damage and an injunction to avoid a new violation of his copyright.
Together Follows a couple who wakes up after a bitter argument to discover that their bodies have been inexplicably merged, forcing them to face the toxic co -depence that binds them. The film is expected to be released on July 30.
