At least they can face it together.
Alison Brie and Dave Franco have been hit with a copyright infringement lawsuit over their upcoming film “Together,” The Post can confirm.
The lawsuit was filed on Tuesday, May 13, by production company StudioFest, which claimed that they pitched the script to Franco and Brie’s agents at WME in 2020 but the real-life couple allegedly “passed on the offer to star in the project.”
Fast-forward to January 2025, when StudioFest “learned that Franco and Brie were producing and starring in a virtually identical film entitled Together, written and directed by another WME client—Michael Shanks.”
In the lawsuit obtained by The Post, the production company accused Brie, 42, and Franco, 39, of producing a “blatant rip-off” of a “Better Half,” a 2023 independent film written by Patrick Phelan and produced by Jess Jacklin and Charles Beale, which StudioFest claimed it had “exclusive rights to develop, produce and exploit.”
In the court documents, StudioFest’s attorney, Dan Miller, pointed out what he claimed to be the “striking similarities” between both films, including their alleged plot points and the main concept of a couple who “wake up to find their bodies physically fused together as a metaphor for codependency.”
“My client’s original work was stolen,” Miller told The Post on Wednesday. “The similarities between the two works are staggering and defy any innocent explanation.
“We intend to hold the defendants accountable,” he added, “and look forward to trial.”
Jacklin and Beale created StudioFest, per the documents; however, the company is the only plaintiff listed in the lawsuit.
Brie and Franco, who married in March 2017, were allegedly approached to star in “Better Half” after the casting director reportedly sent a script to the pair’s agents at William Morris Endeavor on August 19, 2020 via email, per the lawsuit’s exhibit reviewed by The Post.
The following day, Franco’s agent informed the casting director that “Dave was going to pass but thank you for thinking of him.”
According to the lawsuit, Brie also “passed” on the offer.
“Together,” which hits theaters this summer, premiered in January at the Sundance Film Festival. It was sold to Neon for “approximately $17 million” following a bidding war.
The newly filed lawsuit alleged that Brie and Franco “rejected StudioFest’s offer” for “Better Half” because “they wanted to produce the film themselves and have WME package the project with one of the agency’s own writers.”
“In both ‘Better Half’ and ‘Together,’ the main characters struggle to navigate daily life as their physical attachment progresses and they start to control each other’s body parts,” the suit charged while explaining the alleged “blatant” similarities between the two horror flicks.
“While at first they desperately search for ways to detach their bodies – from medical intervention to chainsaws – by the end, they resign themselves to their conjoined existence,” the court documents read.
The suit also named WME, director/writer Michael Shanks, and Neon in the complaint.
StudioFest is asking to be awarded damages in the amount that a jury sees fit, as well as attorney’s fees, and more.
Brie and Franco previously discussed “Together” during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter before it premiered at Sundance earlier this year.
Franco said that he signed on to both produce and star in the movie after a meeting with Shanks.
Brie added that she “lurked in the shadows” of Franco and Shanks’ discussion and only signed on after her husband shared the script with her.
“I remember reading the script and immediately turning to Alison to say, ‘I think we should act in this one together,’ because the characters had been together for over a decade,” the “Love Lies Bleeding” star said.
“I figured that our real-life relationship could lend itself well to that dynamic,” Franco added.
WME, the couple’s talent agency, has since called StudioFest’s complaint against them, their clients and Shanks “frivolous and without merit” in a statement to THR.
“The facts in this case are clear and we plan to vigorously defend ourselves,” the agency added.
The Post has reached out to Brie and Franco’s reps, as well as WME, for comment.
