Film adaptations are obviously nothing new, but film adaptations of Twitter threads? That’s something different. That is exactly what A24’s Sundance darling Zola is. Writer/director Janicza Bravo adapted a series of tweets by A’Ziah King into a full-fledged, and reportedly hilarious, movie. Now, the first teaser, replete with a joke about the film’s up-in-the-air release date, is here.
Florida? murder? u have the wrong number! @_zolarmoon @taylourpaige @rileykeough pic.twitter.com/GE4quzZp6n
— A24 (@A24) August 6, 2020
The movie stars newcomer Taylour Paige as Zola as she narrates a story that begins with — as her first tweet in the adapted thread says — “Y’all wanna hear a story about why me & this bitch here fell out? It’s kind of long but full of suspense.” Zola meets sex worker Stefani (Riley Keough) when she is working as a waitress, and they bond over pole dancing. Stefani soon invites Zola on a road trip with the goal of making a lot of money dancing at clubs. Things go a bit insane as the pair are joined by Stefani’s boyfriend Derrek (Nicholas Braun) and her pimp, X (Colman Domingo).
The story is, for the most part, kind of true. King posted it in 2015 and it quickly went viral. She has admitted to embellishing the story, but on the whole, most of what happened actually happened.
A24 is involved with some of the best films you can watch in almost every genre, and coming out of Sundance, reports were that this film was no exception, lauded for its whip-smart comedy and stylish direction. However, the movie’s release date never came as COVID-19 pushed it back until… well, as the teaser notes, there’s still no release date. Hopefully, sometime soon we’ll all be able to see exactly how a film based on a series of Twitter tweets plays out.
