A24 is getting cheeky ahead of the trailer rollout for Kristoffer Borgli’s new romantic comedy-drama, “The Drama.” On December 9, 2025, the studio planted a mock engagement announcement in The Boston Globe featuring Zendaya and Robert Pattinson as their characters, Emma Harwood and Charlie Thompson — a deadpan, society-page bit that doubles as a breadcrumb trail toward the film’s wedding-week implosion.
Per the film’s updated marketing notes, the stunt was reportedly set in motion the day before, when the Globe’s Living/Arts team was asked to hold its daily TV Critic’s Corner so the faux announcement could run beside the paper’s romance advice column, Love Letters. If true, that’s classic A24 mischief: a tiny, specific cultural incursion that makes a fictional relationship feel like it’s bleeding into the real world.
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The objective is obvious and smart. The ad arrived one day before the trailer was expected to drop on December 10, 2025, turning the gag into a tonal handshake rather than a standalone joke. It’s a way of selling mood and menace before selling footage.
And the premise is already primed for exactly that blend. “The Drama” is written and directed by Borgli and produced by Ari Aster and Lars Knudsen, with the film scheduled to open in U.S. theaters on April 3, 2026. The story centers on a couple of days away from their wedding who find their relationship destabilized after one partner uncovers unsettling truths about the other.
The supporting cast includes Mamoudou Athie, Alana Haim, and Hailey Gates.
What makes the Boston marketing play especially engaging is that it appears to incorporate character-level detail. The ad reportedly portrays Charlie as an art-world veteran and Emma as a bookish Boston presence, while subtly referencing the April 3 date in-universe. Even if you ignore the specifics, the gesture suggests the campaign is leaning into the film’s core tension: the glossy fantasy of public commitment versus the private panic of what you don’t really know about the person you’re about to marry.
For Borgli, coming off the excellent surrealist comedic nightmare “Dream Scenario,” this appears to be another clean premise that can pivot from comedy to dread with a single sideways glance. The engagement-announcement prank hints that the movie’s romantic surface might be intentionally brittle — something that cracks under pressure rather than coasts into happily-ever-after.
A24 has already written the prologue in ink, not pixels: a playful, slightly unhinged save-the-date for a romantic comedy that seems designed to ask how well love holds up when the minute details start to feel like evidence. You can watch the first trailer for “Drama” below.
Rodrigo Perez is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Playlist, which he launched in 2008. He has worked in entertainment journalism since 2000, including at MTV, and has written for SPIN, IndieWire, Pitchfork, Complex, Magnet, and various music, film, and entertainment publications over the past two decades.
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