Justin Baldoni‘s lawyer wasn’t always on his side.
Bryan Freedman—who is currently representing the It Ends With Us director and actor in his legal battle against costar Blake Lively—was hired to work on a 2021 case for screenwriter Travis Flores, in which Flores accused Baldoni of ripping off his romance script Three Feet Distance to make his 2019 directorial debut Five Feet Apart, starring Cole Sprouse and Haley Lu Richardson.
Freedman was named as Flores’ attorney in the filing, which accused Baldoni of stealing Flores’ movie idea that was inspired by his “own life and struggles” living with cystic fibrosis—a progressive, genetic disease—since he was diagnosed at 4 months old, per the suit obtained by E! News Jan. 22.
According to Flores, Baldoni read his Three Feet Distance script—which centered on young lovers with cystic fibrosis and had been in development at a Universal-affiliated production company in 2015—after it was shared through a mutual associate. Shortly after, the children’s book author allegedly discovered that Baldoni had a romance about two teens suffering from the same disease in the works with his own production company, Wayfarer Entertainment.