ZOLA Will Premiere at Sundance Film Festival

Variety reports that "Zola" will premiere at Sundance Film Festival. The movie is the first to ever be based on a viral Twitter thread.

Playwright Jeremy O. Harris wrote the movie with Janicza Bravo. A24 will produce.

In fall 2015, a woman named Aziah Wells (nickname: Zola) told an exaggerated - but not that exaggerated! - story of her journey from Detroit to Tampa, Fla. in order to make money stripping. Wells was conscripted to go to Tampa by a woman named Jessica, whom she'd met while serving her at Hooters; Jessica's boyfriend, Jarrett; and their roommate, nicknamed Z, who turns out to be a violent pimp. What was meant to be an innocent trip of itinerant sex work turned into - in Zola's Twitter version of the story - a dramatic tale of kidnapping, highlighted by a shooting and a suicide attempt.

James Franco was originally attached to direct, but sexual assault allegations had him back off the project.

Taylour Paige ("Hit the Floor") stars as Zola, Riley Keough ("The Lodge") portrays Jessica, Nicholas Braun (Cousin Greg from "Succession") will play Jessica's boyfriend, and Colman Domingo ("If Beale Street Could Talk) plays the pimp.

Read the original story on Variety.

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