Michael Shanks achieved a major breakthrough at Sundance, where his feature debut, “Together,” sold for a whopping $17 million to Neon.
But for the 34-year-old Australian writer-director, success has also come with a downside. Last month, he and the film’s co-stars, Alison Brie and Dave Franco, were accused in a lawsuit of stealing the idea for the body horror film from a little-seen indie comedy called “Better Half.”
In a statement on Wednesday, Shanks said his film is rooted in his own personal story of love and loss, and that he finds the accusation incredibly dismaying.
“To have this called into question is not only deeply upsetting but entirely untrue,” he said. “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.”
“Together” is set to be released in theaters on July 30. The lawsuit alleges that back in 2020, Brie and Franco were pitched on “Better Half,” but their WME agent turned it down. Both films involve a couple who become physically stuck to each other due to mysterious forces.
The producers of “Better Half,” which was released in 2023, attended the Sundance screening of “Together” and were “stunned” by the similarities, according to their lawsuit.
Neon and WME said in a statement Wednesday that the lawsuit is aimed solely at “drumming up fifteen minutes of fame for a failed project.”
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The defendants’ lawyer, Nicolas Jampol, has argued that the two projects are “not remotely similar.” In a letter to the plaintiffs’ lawyer, he wrote that “Together” was independently created, and that Shanks first registered his screenplay in 2019 — before the “Better Half” pitch.
Shanks elaborated on that point in his statement.
“I wish I didn’t have to clarify this, but I completed the first draft in 2019 and registered it to the Writer’s Guild of America that same year,” he said. “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. 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.”
Getting the film made was a “dream come true,” which required both years of hard work and good fortune, he said. The allegation of copyright infringement, which in his view is completely contradicted by the facts, nevertheless threatens to shadow the film’s release.
“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,” Shanks said. “But more importantly: the facts matter. The timeline is documented. The drafts, submissions, and correspondence are all there.”
Jampol has urged the plaintiffs to drop the lawsuit, but has yet to respond in court. Barring a settlement, the case will not be resolved before “Together” is released. Assuming the plaintiffs want to keep pursuing it, it is likely to go on for at least a year or two if not longer.
Plaintiffs’ lawyer Daniel Miller previously told Variety that the similarities between the two projects are “staggering.” He seems equally convinced that the facts are on his side.
“The defendants in this case are doing their very best to explain away the unexplainable, but the evidence speaks for itself,” he said.
From Variety US