"You wanna hear a story about how me and this bitch fell out?"
The trailer for Sundance darling Zola has officially arrived. Starring Taylour Paige, Riley Keough and Nicholas Braun, the new movie weaves a tale of a dancer who falls in with a grifter and embarks on a chaotic and violent trip through Florida.
However, Zola isn't merely a hybrid of Uncut Gems and Spring Breakers: It's actually based on a real (well, mostly real) saga of A'Ziah-Monae "Zola" King, whose 148-tweet thread about her entanglement with a woman named Jessica (changed to Stefani in the film) blew up and caught the attention of director Janicza Bravo, who co-wrote Zola with Jeremy O. Harris.
The film is narrated by Paige's Zola, whose friendship with Stefani, played by Keough, takes a sour turn upon reaching their Tampa destination, where Zola was told they would find fortune dancing at a high-end club. However, soon, it becomes clear that entertaining at the strip club wasn't the only reason Stefani brought Zola to Florida with her.
"This is messy! You are messy," Zola says in the trailer. "Your brain is broke."
Many lines of dialogue in the trailer are pulled verbatim from Zola's Twitter thread, including a text that Zola sends Stefani in the film: "Damn bitch, we just met and we already taking hoe trips together?"
Bravo told Deadline last year of what attracted her to make the film, "What drew me most was [Zola's] voice. I hadn't really experienced a story like that, I would say ever in my life. The tenor of it was just so clear and it was so strong and so confident. It was the fantasy version I have of myself in a way. I said this to her many times, but she was like a real-life superhero."
Originally, James Franco was slated to direct a Zola film, which was based on David Kushner's story for Rolling Stone. However, in June 2018, Bravo took over directing duties from Franco, and he took his name off the project.
Check out the deliciously chaotic trailer above.