Filmmaker Michael Shanks' debut album Together It's one of the most anticipated horror movies of the summer, but it's not without controversy. Sundance Film Festival darlings – reportedly sold $17 million in publisher Neon after the bidding war – played real-life husband and wife Dave Franco and Alison Brie, a married couple, when the holiday turned when the holiday turned when (spoiler alert) (spoiler alert!) caused their bodies to merge. It's an interesting premise, though it's a terrible one – another production company claims it's a stolen movie, A better half.
The calf and the talent organization behind it Together Team, deny the allegations. But that didn't stop people from talking about whether Together It's indeed theft. and Together Go to the theater on July 30, which is the explanation of the drama.
What is A better half Team accusations?
Back in May, the producer of independent films A better halfJess Jacklin and Charles Beale Togetheralleging copyright infringement. ((A better half However, written and directed by Patrick Henry Phelan, Jacklin and Beale's production company Studiofest are the only plaintiffs nominated in the lawsuit.
According to an article in Entertainment Weekly, Jacklyn and Bill claim Together Stealed A better halfone of the couple “wakes up and discovers that their bodies are physically integrated is a metaphor because they are interdependent metaphors.”
The main role Together Married and in A better half They are strangers, they only have one night stands, and both films show how the couple is in the center “as the body’s attachment progresses, they begin to control each other’s body parts,” according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit also noted that both couples tried to use chainsaws to separate themselves from each other.
this A better half The producers also noticed that many other details shared by the film, including references to the Spice Girl, the main character and careers of the bathroom scene, both couples attempt to hide their intertwined conditions in a third party. According to the lawsuit, the films also include references to Plato's workshop, which dissects the meaning and meaning of love.
this A better half The team also claimed that Franco and Brie's agents at WME were sent copies of the script A better half In 2020, but they finally passed the project. It is worth noting that Together Described as a horror movie, A better half Known as romantic comedy.
Brooklyn Film Festival, there A better half Premiered in 2022, the following description of the movie is provided on its website:
According to Greek mythology, humans were once creatures with two sides, four arms and four legs until Zeus was divided into two, allowing us to search for the other half endlessly. Fast forward to modern. The journey of intercourse may reveal what they have been missing. ”
A better half There seems to be no distribution after the festival and it is not possible to watch online at this time.
What Together The team said
WME is a talent agency representing Franco, Brie and film producer Shanks, who strongly denies A better half allegations. A WME spokesperson said in a speech on Indiewire: “This lawsuit is rash and has no merits. In this case, the facts are clear and we plan to defend ourselves strongly.”
In a joint statement on June 18, Neon and WME claimed that the plaintiffs “are nothing more than adding 15 minutes of fame to a failed project, proving that they contacted the press before filing the lawsuit and did not do the most basic due diligence.” They accused Jacklin and Beale of finding paydays by waving their hands in the media.
“We look forward to bringing the case in court,” they said.
On the same day, Shanks wrote and directed Togethershared his statements on Neon's Instagram and X accounts, calling the allegations “destructive.” He said Together Shanks, like Franco and Brie’s characters, comes from a “deeply personal” place, says he’s in a long-term relationship and his own experience of “identity, love and interdependence” is inspired. Together.
“Tim's story, love for Milly, relationships with family, relationships with musicians, is completely rooted in my own personal life,” Shanks said in his statement. “I lost my father at a very young age, and like our main character, his trauma is rooted in my own plants. To be questioned, it's not only frustrating, but it's totally unreal.”
Shanks also said he completed and registered Together 2019 – Before A better half The Franco team sent to WME – and began developing it with Screen Australia in 2020. Franco joined the ship in 2022 after meeting Shanks, and Franco's real-life wife Brie joined the project soon after.
“Now accused of stealing this story – based so deeply on my own life experience, which I developed over a few years – has caused devastating and caused a huge loss,” Shanks said.
View the trailer Together the following:
Is the movie accused of stealing?
The stolen accusations often happen in Hollywood and occasionally attract a lot of attention. Last year, Alexander Payne's movie reserve Accused of stealing elements of Simon Stephenson's script FriscoOn the 2013 blacklist of the most popular scripts in the industry. Stephenson filed a complaint with the American Writers Association, saying it was not within the scope of the organization. in the case of Frisco and reserveboth scripts are available online, allowing people to make their own judgments about similarities on social media – many say the scripts are too different to make plagiarism claims.
Payne, directed reserve This was discussed at the Sarajevo Film Festival in August 2024, according to a script written by David Hemingson. Payne claims that the allegations of theft have no merits and that the allegations never involve litigation.
“I didn't even pay attention to it because Cook's allegations kept coming out of the woodwork and that didn't even bother me, but then kept coming up and I was like, 'OK, this is stupid'.”
Filmmaker and actor Justin Baldoni is also accused of placing his 2019 directorial debut Five feet apartTeenagers Fall in Love About Cystic Fibrosis, from screenwriter Travis Flores Three feet distance. The case was resolved in 2022 and Bardoni has not spoken publicly about the situation. Flores died in 2024.
The legal threshold for plagiarism, especially in movies and TV – is high even if someone can prove that the defendant can get the original work like a script. That's because the idea itself cannot be copyrighted, there is only a specific expression of the idea, such as an exact script or dialogue. This means that two people can have very similar concepts of story without being considered a theft, as long as they are executed differently.
It is not uncommon to release similar movies and TV shows almost simultaneously. Romantic comedy friends with benefits and no strings attached, about Friends who fell down with each other after promising to keep people emotionally unrelated, were released in 2011. In terms of television, wilderness and Yellow jacket – made its debut less than a year apart in 2020 and 2021 respectively – Both are concentrated on teenage girls who must survive in the wilderness after a plane crash.