Award-winning studio NEON announced today that, in the first big deal out of Sundance, it has acquired the worldwide rights to writer/director Michael Shanks’ (Rebooted) feature-length directorial debut Togetherstarring real-life couple Alison Brie (The Rental, Somebody I Used to Know, “Glow”) and Dave Franco (The Rental), and Damon Harriman (Better Man). NEON will release the film theatrically on August 1st.
The film is produced by Brie, Franco, Erik Feig and Julia Hammer for Picturestart, Tim Headington and Max Silva for Tango, Andrew Mittman for 1.21, and Mike Cowap for Princess Pictures.
Tango, Picturestart, and 30WEST financed the film.
Tango’s Lia Buman and Neil Shah, Picturestart’s Samie Kim Falvey, 1.21’s Kai Dolbashian, Princess Pictures’ Laura Waters and Emma Fitzsimmons, and 30WEST’s Micah Green, Daniel Steinman, and Sarah Hong executive produced.
In Together, a move to the countryside tests the limits of a couple’s relationship, where a supernatural encounter begins an extreme transformation of their love, their lives, and their flesh. The film is currently sitting strong at 100% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, following its premiere in the Midnight Section of the festival on Sunday, January 26.
NEON will distribute the film theatrically in the U.S. and handle the international sales rights (excluding ANZ) to the film in Berlin. The deal was negotiated by Jason Wald for NEON with WME Independent on behalf of the filmmakers.
Michael Shanks is a Melbourne-based writer and director whose films balance character with spectacle. He has won awards for writing, directing, editing, and for his work as a VFX artist and composer. His script Hotel Hotel Hotel Hotel was featured on the 2021 Black List.
The deal comes after NEON recently released Anora, Sean Baker’s highly acclaimed film starring Mikey Madison, which won the coveted Palme d’Or in Cannes, opened in select theaters October 18 to the highest per-screen average of 2024 and has garnered a whopping 6 Academy Award® nominations; The Seed of the Sacred Fig from Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof, which NEON picked up out of this year’s Cannes Film Festival and has been nominated for a BAFTA and for Best International Feature at the 97th Academy Awards®; and Osgood Perkins’ horror film Longlegs, which is the highest grossing independent film of the year at $75 million domestically. Last year, NEON won studio of the year at the 2024 Clio Entertainment Awards, making it the first indie to win the award.