JoBlo’s own Chris Bumbray had the chance to see the body horror film Together at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year and said that “horror fans are going to have a blast” with this one when it makes its way out into the world. (You can read his full 8/10 review at THIS LINK.) Now, Neon is planning to bring this good time to horror fans with a July 30 theatrical release. While Bumbray got to view it at SXSW, two producers made sure to watch it at Sundance as the concept sounded a little too familiar to their own film.
Jess Jacklin and Charles Beale were producers on the 2020 indie film, Better Half, which they feel has been ripped off in Together. Variety reports that the producers have filed a copyright infringement suit against Franco and Brie, saying that they pitched them Better Half back in 2020, but the stars and their WME agents turned it down. The suit states, “As the audience laughed and cheered, Jacklin and Beale sat in stunned silence, their worst nightmare unfolding. Scene after scene confirmed that Defendants did not simply take ‘stock ideas’ or ‘scenes a faire’ but stole virtually every unique aspect of ‘Better Half’s’ copyrightable expression.” The suit has alleged that the defendants engaged in an “intentional scheme” to copy ideas from their film and claimed Brie and Franco rejected the initial offer “because they wanted to produce the film themselves and have WME package the project with one of the agency’s own writers.”
The suit recounts that the casting director of Better Half sent Franco and Brie’s agents a script along with a synopsis in August 2020. They even included an offer for the couple to star in the film. Franco’s agent was said to have responded, “Dave is going to pass, but thank you for thinking of him.” WME responded to the suit, saying it was “frivolous and without merit.” A spokesperson stated, “The facts in this case are clear and we plan to vigorously defend ourselves.”
The suit claims, “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 following description from the lawsuit does contain some SPOILERY details for both films, so if you want to stay as fresh as you can, you may want to skip it.
The suit alleges, “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.” They also point out specifics that include a “strikingly similar bathroom sequence where the protagonists become attached at the genitals and attempt to hide their intimate encounter from a minor character waiting just outside.”
A last point of note, per Variety, “In the synopsis, the Better Half was described a surreal, satirical comedy about a man and a woman who have a one-night stand, and wake up to see that they have become literally and physically attached. The email did not describe it as horror film. When it appeared at the Brooklyn Film Festival, it was billed as a romantic comedy.”
