“Together” writer-director Michael Shanks broke his silence Wednesday on the copyright infringement lawsuit filed against him, WME, distributor Neon and stars and producers Dave Franco and Alison Brie.
Defending the independent body horror feature as one of his own creation, the filmmaker said the script — which centers on a couple, Tim and Millie, who become physically fused together as a metaphor for co-dependency — is “deeply based on my own lived experience” and inspired by his 16-year relationship that itself has seen an “entanglement of identity, love and co-dependence.”
“It’s not just a script; it’s a reflection of something deeply personal,” Shanks said in a statement obtained by TheWrap. “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. 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 and his “Together” co-defendants were sued for copyright infringement in May by production, financing and distribution company StudioFest, which accused the creatives of stealing the plot of “Together” from their own 2023 indie, Patrick Henry Phelan’s “Better Half.”
“My client’s original work was stolen. The similarities between the two works are staggering and defy any innocent explanation,” StudioFest attorney Dan Miller told TheWrap at the time. “We intend to hold the defendants accountable and look forward to trial.”
Neon acquired “Together” out of Sundance earlier this year for $17 million. StudioFest is seeking damages for actual and statutory damages, disgorgement of profits, injunctive relief to prevent further infringement, attorneys’ fees and costs, and pre- and post-judgment interest — totaling an amount to be proven through trial by jury.
Shanks said that the lawsuit is “devastating and has taken a heavy toll,” adding that the suggestion that he stole the plot of Phelan’s film “not only undermines the work but also attempts to erase the emotional and professional journey I’ve taken to bring it to life.”
“But more importantly: the facts matter. The timeline is documented. The drafts, submissions and correspondence are all there,” Shanks said, explaining that he completed the first draft of “Together” in 2019 — undermining the lawsuit’s argument that the “Better Half” plot was stolen through a 2020 offer made to WME for Franco and Brie to star — and that it was registered to the Writer’s Guild of America that same year.
“In October 2020, I received development funding from Screen Australia to further the project. In 2022, my agent at WME introduced me to Dave Franco,” Shanks said. “From our very first meeting, we bonded over our love of horror, and I pitched him ‘Together’ — a script I had been trying to get into production for years, with no luck. Soon after, he and Alison Brie came onboard to act in and produce the film.
“I stand by ‘Together,’ its origins, and the years of work it took to make it real,” Shanks continued. “To make this independent film was an absolute dream come true that required years of hard work and no shortage of luck. It’s been the most insane whirlwind of good fortune to have collaborated with so many amazing artists to make this film a reality and I’m so excited to share it with the world later this year.”
In a statement of their own Wednesday, Neon and WME told TheWrap the following: “The plaintiff is 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. There was zero outreach to the defendants to determine whether or not the ‘Together’ script predated the plaintiff’s script, which it does. The fact is, ‘Together’s’ writer-director Michael Shanks — not WME, Dave Franco or Alison Brie — wrote the script for ‘Together’ and registered the initial version with the WGA (Writer’s Guild of America) in 2019, almost a whole year before the plaintiff sent its script to WME. Almost all of the alleged similarities were in Shanks’ original 2019 script, much of it inspired by his own life and relationship with his longtime girlfriend. The plaintiff doesn’t care about the facts, they only care about making waves in the press right before a film’s release in order to get a payday. We look forward to presenting our case in court.”
The lawsuit, filed May 13 on behalf of StudioFest and co-founders Jess Jacklin and Charles Irving Beale in the Central District of California, claims that “both works center around a couple who wake up to find their bodies physically fused together as a metaphor for codependency,” and that “Together” additionally echoes “plot, themes, characters, dialogue, mood, setting, pace and sequence of events” from “Better Half.” Also featured within StudioFest’s lawsuit is Exhibit B, showcasing a side-by-side of promotional images from both films, which the production company claims are “virtually identical.” (See below.)
In addition to citing similarities between the premise of “Better Half” and “Together,” the suit draws from direct scenes, themes and moments of dialogue that StudioFest argues prove the latter film to be a “blatant ripoff.” One example is characters’ discussion of “Plato’s Symposium” in a “near-verbatim way, explaining that human beings originally had two faces and eight limbs, but Zeus split them in half because the gods feared man’s power.” Another is that both “Better Half” and “Together” share a final “pivotal emotional scene” that features the two main characters accepting their fate and putting on a vinyl of the Spice Girls album “Spiceworld.” The two central couples are also composed of one co-dependent partner (Millie in “Together”) and a commitment-phobic artist (Tim in “Together”), both in their 30s.
The lawsuit alleges that after reading the script to consider casting director Lois Drabkin’s offer to star in “Better Half,” Franco and Brie “engaged in an intentional scheme to copy ‘Better Half,’ and that Franco and Brie rejected StudioFest’s offer because they wanted to produce the film themselves and have WME package the project with one of the agency’s own writers.”
Franco and Brie to this point had co-starred in “The Little Hours,” “The Disaster Artist,” “Horse Girl” and “The Rental.” Franco also directed Brie in “Somebody I Used to Know.” The two have been married since 2017. “Together” is slated to be released on Aug. 1 by Neon.
The co-defendants’ statements Wednesday follow a legal letter sent by their attorney Nicolas Jampol to plaintiffs last week. In the letter, Jampol argued the films are “not remotely similar.”
“Your client does not own this concept,” Jampol wrote. “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.”
