Watch the first trailer of viral Twitter thread-turned-film, Zola

The Twitter saga-turned-film is finally seeing a wider release.

August 06, 2020

The first teaser for the A24-produced film Zola is finally here. Based on the twists and turns of a story that unfolded tweet by tweet back in 2015, Zola is directed by Janicza Bravo and stars Taylour Paige as the title character alongside Riley Keough, Nicholas Braun, and Colman Domingo.

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The teaser, which does not indicate a release date beyond "coming soon," starts off with the first tweet that set off Zola's story. "You wanna hear a story about how me and this bitch here fell out? It's kinda long but it's full of suspense," user @_zolarmoon shared in her first post. The resulting Twitter thread was a whirlwind 150-tweet tale of money-making gone awry, complete with violence, pimps, and scams. The thread went on to be retweeted thousands of times.

A24 would later acquire the rights to the Rolling Stone piece "Zola Tells All: The Real Story Behind the Greatest Stripper Saga Ever Tweeted.". The story's writer, Aziah Wells King a.k.a. Zola, also starred in Solange's video for "Stay Flo."

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While James Franco was initially set to direct and star in the film, the actor took his name off the project after allegations of sexual assault surfaced in 2018, according to Variety.

Zola made its world premiere at Sundance earlier this year, where it received generally positive reviews. Watch the teaser above.

Thumbnail image via A24.

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Watch the first trailer of viral Twitter thread-turned-film, Zola