Dave Franco and Alison Brie are including their real-life romance in the latest trailer for their indie horror film “Together.” Collaborators and married couple Franco and Brie lead Michael Shanks’ body horror Sundance hit, which they also produce.
The official synopsis reads: “Years into their relationship, Tim and Millie (Franco and Brie) find themselves at a crossroads as they move to the country. Abandoning all that is familiar in their lives except each other. With tensions already flaring, a nightmarish encounter with a mysterious, unnatural force threatens to corrupt their lives, their love, and their flesh.”
The latest trailer incorporates personal outtakes of Franco and Brie’s love story interspersed with creepy stills from the film.
Franco previously directed wife Brie in the horror movie “The Rental” and the 2023 romance “Somebody I Used to Know.” He told IndieWire that “Together,” though, was an unprecedented experience. “This was like the most full-on thing we’ve ever done together,” Franco said. “We’re very picky about what we choose to do, especially when we’re onscreen together, just because we don’t want to burn people out on us.”
“Together” premiered at Sundance, where it was acquired by Neon. IndieWire’s review by Kate Erbland called the film a “delightfully unhinged spin” on genre features. After the buzz of the film made the rounds, production, financing, and distribution company StudioFest filed a copyright lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court alleging that Brie and Franco had turned down an offer to star in the studio’s film “Better Half,” which had specific parallels to “Together.” The lawsuit claimed that the actors then developed “Together” at WME with Shanks.
Writer/director Shanks issued a statement defending the film, which he wrote and had copyrighted in 2019. “Have you ever been in a relationship so long that the line between you and the other person starts to blur?” Shanks said. “I’ve been with my partner for over 16 years — almost half my life. That entanglement of identity, love, and co-dependence is what inspired TOGETHER. It’s not just a script; it’s a reflection of something deeply personal. 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. […] 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.”
Neon will release “Together” in theaters on Friday, July 30. Check out the latest trailer below.