March for Our Lives Slams A24's 'The Drama' Marketing
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- March for Our Lives posted a disclaimer to Instagram on Thursday calling A24's marketing of 'The Drama' 'deeply misaligned' with the reality the film engages, specifically objecting to how a school shooting subject is treated lightly or played for irony.
- 'The Drama,' directed by Kristoffer Borgli and starring Zendaya and Robert Pattinson, reveals early in the runtime that Zendaya's bride-to-be character Emma once orchestrated a mass shooting at her school, though she did not go through with it.
- March for Our Lives executive director Jaclyn Corin told IndieWire that failing to take responsibility for the marketing's tone is 'a missed opportunity at best, but harmful at worst,' and urged A24 and the filmmakers to host a serious conversation about gun violence rather than just provoke one.
- A24 declined to comment when asked by IndieWire about the organization's statement.
- Tom Mauser, whose child was killed in the 1999 Columbine High School Massacre, told TMZ last week that the film's premise was 'awful' and that he was bothered by what he saw as a frivolous dismissal of its contents.
- Critical reviews for the film have been mixed even as they praise the lead performances, with Deadline's Pete Hammond calling it 'a darkly funny, yet explosively honest movie' that is 'bound to spark spirited conversation.'
Why it matters: A24 has built its brand on provocative, awards-friendly indie fare, but the dispute with March for Our Lives — joined by a Columbine victim's parent — puts the studio's marketing choices under a survivor-led spotlight that demands more than box-office-friendly ambiguity on the topic of school shootings.
