Latest news with #BetterHalf
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Did Dave Franco and Alison Brie's new horror flick ‘Together' rip off another movie? Here's what both sides are saying.
In a copyright lawsuit, the producers of "Better Half" claim that the premise of "Together" was stolen from their 2022 romantic comedy. Filmmaker Michael Shanks's debut feature Together is one of the most anticipated horror films of the summer — but it's not without controversy. The Sundance Film Festival darling — it sold for a reported $17 million to distributor Neon following a bidding war — stars real-life husband and wife Dave Franco and Alison Brie as a married couple whose vacation takes a turn when (spoiler alert!) a supernatural force causes their bodies to merge. It's a funny, albeit terrifying premise — and one that another production company alleges was stolen from its film, Better Half. Shanks, as well as the talent agency behind the Together team, deny the allegations. But that hasn't stopped people from talking about whether Together is really a rip-off. With Together heading to theaters on July 30, here's an explainer of the drama. What is the team alleging? Back in May, producers of the indie movie Better Half, Jess Jacklin and Charles Beale, filed a lawsuit against the producers of Together, alleging copyright infringement. (Better Half was written and directed by Patrick Henry Phelan, however, Jacklin and Beale's production company, StudioFest, is the only plaintiff named in the suit.) According to an article in Entertainment Weekly, Jacklin and Beale claim that the makers of Together stole the concept of Better Half, in which a couple 'wake up to find their bodies physically fused together as a metaphor for codependency.' While the main characters in Together are married and in Better Half they are strangers who just had a one night stand, both films show how the couple at the center 'navigate daily life as their physical attachment progresses and they start to control each other's body parts,' per the lawsuit. The suit also notes that both couples attempt to use chainsaws to separate themselves from one another. The Better Half producers also note a number of other details that the movies share, including a reference to the Spice Girls, the professions of the main characters and bathroom scenes in which both couples attempt to hide their intertwined condition from a third party. According to the suit, the films also include references to Plato's Symposium, which dissects the meaning and significance of love. The Better Half team also claims that Franco's and Brie's agents at WME were sent a copy of the script for Better Half in 2020, but they ultimately passed on the project. It's worth noting that while Together is described as a horror movie, Better Half is billed as a romantic comedy. The Brooklyn Film Festival, where Better Half premiered in 2022, features the following description for the film on its website: 'According to Greek mythology, humans were once two-faced, four-armed, four-legged creatures, until Zeus split us in two, leaving us in an endless search for our other halves. Fast forward to modern day: Arturo, a hopeless romantic in search of true love, and Daphne, a serial polygamist allergic to commitment, meet for what should be a one-night stand, and quite literally find their other half when their bodies fuse during sex. The haphazard journey to come undone might just reveal what they'd been missing all along.' Better Half appears not to have received distribution after its festival run and is unable to be viewed online at this point in time. What the team has said WME, the talent agency representing Franco, Brie and filmmaker Shanks, has vehemently denied the Better Half allegations. Speaking to IndieWire, a spokesperson for WME stated, 'This lawsuit is frivolous and without merit. The facts in this case are clear and we plan to vigorously defend ourselves.' In a joint statement on June 18, Neon and WME alleged that the plaintiffs are doing 'nothing more than drumming up 15 minutes of fame for a failed project, demonstrated by the fact they contacted the press before filing their lawsuit, and did so without doing the most basic due diligence.' They accused Jacklin and Beale of searching for a payday by making waves in the press. 'We look forward to presenting our case in court,' they said. That same day, Shanks, who wrote and directed Together, shared his own statement on Neon's Instagram and X accounts, calling the accusations 'devastating.' He said Together came from a 'deeply personal' place as, like Franco's and Brie's characters, Shanks said he is in a long-term relationship, and that his own experience of the 'entanglement of identity, love, and codependence' is what inspired Together. 'Tim's story, his love for Millie, his relationship to his family, his relationship to unfulfilled ambitions as a musician, is completely rooted in my own personal life,' Shanks said in his statement. 'I lost my father at a young age in the same way our main character does, his trauma is rooted in my own. To have this called into question is not only deeply upsetting but entirely untrue.' Shanks also stated that he completed and registered the first draft of Together in 2019 — before Better Half was sent to Franco's team at WME — and began developing it with Screen Australia in 2020. Franco came onboard in 2022 after meeting with Shanks, and Brie, Franco's real-life wife, joined the project shortly after. 'To now be accused of stealing this story — one so deeply based on my own lived experience, one I've developed over the course of several years — is devastating and has taken a heavy toll,' Shanks said. Check out the trailer for Together below: Is it common for movies to be accused of plagiarism? Plagiarism accusations occur fairly often in Hollywood, and they occasionally receive a lot of attention. Last year, the Alexander Payne film The Holdovers was accused of stealing elements of Simon Stephenson's script Frisco, which was on the 2013 Blacklist of the most popular scripts circulating in the industry. Stephenson filed a complaint with the Writers Guild of America, which said it was not within the scope of the organization to handle. In the case of Frisco and The Holdovers, both scripts are available online, allowing people to make their own judgments on social media about the similarities — with many saying the scripts were too different to make plagiarism claims. Payne, who directed The Holdovers from a script written by David Hemingson, spoke at the Sarajevo Film Festival in August 2024 about the situation. Payne claimed there was no merit to the plagiarism allegations, which never materialized into a lawsuit. 'I didn't even pay attention to it because kooky accusations come out of the woodwork all of the time and this didn't even bother me but then it kind of kept coming, I thought, 'Well, that's dumb,'' Payne said, according to Deadline. Filmmaker and actor Justin Baldoni was also accused of plagiarizing his 2019 directorial debut Five Feet Apart, about teenagers with cystic fibrosis falling in love, from screenwriter Travis Flores' script Three Feet Distance. The case was settled in 2022 and Baldoni has not spoken about the situation publicly. Flores died in 2024. The legal threshold for plagiarism — especially in film and television — is quite high, even if someone is able to prove that the accused had access to an original work like a script. That's because ideas themselves cannot be copyrighted — only the specific expression of an idea, such as the exact script or dialogue. This means that two people can have very similar story concepts without it being considered theft, as long as the execution is different. And it's not unusual for similar films and TV shows to come out at almost the same time. The romantic comedies Friends With Benefits and No Strings Attached, about friends who fall for one another after promising to stay emotionally uninvolved, both hit theaters in 2011. On the TV side, The Wilds and Yellowjackets — which debuted less than a year apart, in 2020 and 2021, respectively — both centered on teen girls who must survive the wilderness after a plane crash.
Time of India
24-06-2025
- Time of India
Man poses as cop, cheats woman of Rs 4 lakh
Noida: Police filed a complaint against a man who allegedly conned a woman of over Rs 4 lakh through a matrimonial website. The victim, a resident of Sector 25, filed a complaint at the Sector-20 police station. The victim met the accused, who introduced himself as Rohit, on the matrimonial website Better Half in March. Posing as a police officer, based out of Delhi, he sent her an image of his "ID card" to gain her trust. The two began communicating regularly, during which he persuaded the complainant to transfer funds to him under various pretenses. Over the last few months, he managed to steal Rs 4.02 lakh from her before ghosting her. The victim reported the matter to the Sector-20 police, prompting an investigation. You Can Also Check: Noida AQI | Weather in Noida | Bank Holidays in Noida | Public Holidays in Noida Based on her statements, authorities registered a case under Section 316(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita for criminal breach of trust and Section 66D of the IT Act. Officials raised concerns over growing online fraud, particularly on matrimonial websites. Authorities urge the public to exercise caution and verify the authenticity of individuals met online to prevent such deceitful practices.
San Francisco Chronicle
22-06-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
‘Your client does not own this concept': Bay Area filmmaker fires back at plagiarism accusations
With the high-stakes release of the horror film 'Together' looming, lawyers representing Bay Area filmmaker and actor Dave Franco and his wife and co-star Alison Brie are hitting back against a copyright infringement lawsuit over their buzzy Sundance Film Festival favorite. According to a letter sent to lawyers representing the production company of 'Better Half,' a 2023 film written and directed by Patrick Henry Phelan, attorney Nicolas Jampol asserts that 'Together,' written and directed by Michael Shanks and starring Brie and Franco, is 'not remotely similar.' Both films are about a couple who hook up then become fused together, though 'Better Half' is a romantic comedy, and 'Together,' due for release on July 30, is a body horror film. 'Your client does not own this concept,' Jampol wrote in the May 21 letter, which was obtained by Variety. 'Neither do our clients. It is an unprotectable idea, one that predates all of our clients and has been explored in many films, television shows and other fictional works.' The suit, filed May 13 in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, called 'Together' a 'blatant rip-off' of 'Better Half,' complete with a Spice Girls reference and a 'near verbatim' reference to Plato's 'Symposium.' In addition, the plaintiff, StudioFest, alleges that the casting director of 'Better Half' sent the script to Franco and Brie's agents at WME in August 2020 with an offer to star, but were turned down. But in the letter, Jampol noted that Shanks registered a completed draft with the Writers Guild of America in 2019. He also wrote that the reference to the Spice Girls song '2 Become 1' was not surprising, and that the coincidence is unprotectable. In a response to Jampol's letter on Monday, June 9, plaintiffs' attorney Daniel Miller, said that defense 'borders on the ridiculous.' Aside from Franco and Brie, who is also a producer on the project, defendants listed in the suit include Shanks, William Morris Endeavor Entertainment — which represents Franco and Brie — and Neon, the distributor which acquired 'Together' for $17 million out of Sundance. Franco, 39, is the brother of actor James Franco and is an alum of Palo Alto High School. He married Brie, 42, in 2017, and they have co-starred in four movies.
San Francisco Chronicle
22-06-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Dave Franco and Alison Brie's ‘Together' director calls identity theft lawsuit ‘deeply upsetting'
The director of 'Together,' a new horror film by Bay Area filmmaker Dave Franco and his wife Alison Brie, has spoken up about the copyright infringement lawsuit that it has been embroiled in. 'It's not just a script; it's a reflection of something deeply personal,' the film's director, Michael Shanks, said in a statement released Wednesday, June 18. 'I lost my father at a young age in the same way our main character does, his trauma is rooted in my own. To have this called into question is not only deeply upsetting but entirely untrue.' The lawsuit, filed by production company StudioFest on May 13, claims that the Sundance Film Festival horror is a 'blatant rip-off' of Patrick Henry Phelan's 2023 independent romantic comedy 'Better Half.' Both films center on the concept of a couple being physically fused together, and the suit alleges that several other elements, including a 'near verbatim' reference to Plato's 'Symposium,' were copied. The suit lays out a timeline asserting that Brie and Franco were pitched on 'Better Half' in 2020, and that their agent at William Morris Endeavor Entertainment turned it down. However, Shanks claimed in his statement that he completed the film's first draft in 2019, subsequently registering it to the Writer's Guild of America later that year. After receiving development funding in 2020, he was introduced to Franco in 2022 and pitched the film to him. Shanks described being accused of idea theft as devastating. 'The suggestion not only undermines the work but also attempts to erase the emotional and professional journey I've taken to bring it to life,' he said. Last month, the defendants' attorney Nicolas Jampol asserted the films are 'not remotely similar' in a letter sent to StudioFest, which is behind 'Better Half.' 'Your client does not own this concept,' Jampol wrote in the May 21 letter, which was obtained by Variety. 'Neither do our clients. It is an unprotectable idea, one that predates all of our clients and has been explored in many films, television shows and other fictional works.' Franco, a Palo Alto High School alum and brother of actor James Franco, and Brie are both producers on the project and are among the defendants listed in the suit. Others include Shanks, WME and Neon, the distributor that acquired the film for $17 million. A joint statement from Neon and WME notes that 'the plaintiff is doing nothing more than drumming up 15 minutes of fame for a failed project.' 'Together' is due out July 30.
Express Tribune
19-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Express Tribune
Michael Shanks denies plagiarism in Together film starring Dave Franco and Alison Brie
Michael Shanks, writer-director of the upcoming indie film Together, has spoken out following a copyright infringement lawsuit filed against him and the film's creative team—including stars and producers Dave Franco and Alison Brie. The suit, brought by production company StudioFest, claims Together unlawfully copied the premise of their 2023 film Better Half. In a statement obtained by TheWrap, Shanks dismissed the lawsuit as unfounded, calling the film a reflection of his 'own lived experience.' He said the story—about a couple who wake up physically fused together, symbolizing co-dependency—was inspired by his 16-year relationship, which has been marked by 'entanglement of identity, love and co-dependence.' 'It's not just a script; it's deeply personal,' said Shanks, who also explained that key plot elements—like the main character's trauma over the loss of a parent and his struggles as a musician—were drawn from his life. 'To have this called into question is not only deeply upsetting but entirely untrue.' StudioFest filed the lawsuit in May, alleging Together copied plot points, dialogue, themes, and even visuals from Better Half. Their lawyer, Dan Miller, said, 'The similarities between the two works are staggering and defy any innocent explanation.' In response, Shanks provided a detailed timeline of the film's development, asserting he completed the first draft in 2019 and registered it with the Writers Guild of America that year—well before StudioFest's script was submitted to WME in 2020. Supporting Shanks' timeline, distributor Neon and WME accused the plaintiffs of 'chasing headlines before the film's release,' insisting Shanks alone created the story. Together, acquired by Neon for $17 million following its Sundance debut, is set for release on August 1, 2025. Shanks concluded, 'I stand by Together, its origins, and the years of work it took to make it real.'
