{"id":545779,"date":"2026-03-26T05:16:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T05:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/545779\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T05:16:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T05:16:10","slug":"zendaya-and-robert-pattinson-film-the-drama-condemned-by-columbine-victims-father-over-major-twist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/545779\/","title":{"rendered":"Zendaya and Robert Pattinson film The Drama condemned by Columbine victim\u2019s father over major twist"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Drama, A24\u2019s buzzy new drama starring Zendaya<\/a> and Robert Pattinson, is facing criticism over the big reveal at the heart of its narrative.<\/p>\n

Warning: This article contains major spoilers for The Drama<\/a>, which comes out in theaters April 3.<\/p>\n

The film, which has been promoted as a dark romantic-comedy,<\/a> has sparked controversy ahead of next week\u2019s release after TMZ reported that the movie\u2019s twist rubbed audience members the wrong way at early screenings.<\/p>\n

In the movie, Zendaya\u2019s character Emma confesses to her fianc\u00e9, Pattinson\u2019s character Charlie, and their friends that she once planned a high school shooting but never went through with it.<\/p>\n

Tom Mauser,<\/a> whose son Daniel Mauser was shot and killed among 13 others in the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School,<\/a> told TMZ<\/a> that he is disgusted by the movie\u2019s twist.<\/p>\n

\"InIn \u2018The Drama,\u2019 Zendaya\u2019s character, Emma, confesses to her fianc\u00e9, played by Robert Pattinson, that she planned a school shooting when she was younger (A24)\"ZendayaZendaya and Robert Pattinson’s new movie ‘The Drama’ has been criticized for its plot twist by Tom Mauser (right), the father of Columbine victim Daniel Mauser (Getty)<\/p>\n

Mauser, who has advocated for gun reform for the past 25 years, told the outlet that it is \u201cawful\u201d to use the serious subject as a plot device in a romantic comedy. The father, who has not seen the movie, said it \u201chumanizes\u201d shooters and \u201cnormalizes\u201d school shootings. No mass violence is depicted in the movie.<\/p>\n

He was particularly upset about Zendaya\u2019s March 16 appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, in which Mauser said she did not treat what she called the \u201cbig twist\u201d with enough gravity.<\/p>\n

The Euphoria actor said on Kimmel: \u201cI really hope that people don\u2019t spoil it for each other so they\u2019re allowed to go into it just unknowing and really experience the drama.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kimmel said, \u201cI could see this movie causing a lot of problems for a lot of people in their personal lives,\u201d and Zendaya responded: \u201cThose conversations can go many ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

A24 declined to comment on Mauser\u2019s remarks.<\/p>\n

The film is directed by Norwegian screenwriter Kristoffer Borgli, who is known for directing the 2023 comedy Dream Scenario. In addition to Zendaya and Pattinson, the movie also stars Alana Haim, Mamoudou Athie, Hailey Gates and Zo\u00eb Winters.<\/p>\n

Zendaya said in a press release about the film: \u201cThere\u2019s going to be a lot of interest around what Emma\u2019s big revelation is in the movie, and while I think that revelation is important and pivotal, it\u2019s about so much more than that.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat happens to Charlie and Emma in the wake of her confession becomes the ultimate test of love and acceptance in a relationship, and what you\u2019re willing to do in the name of love.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":545780,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[88,206],"class_list":{"0":"post-545779","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-movies"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=545779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545779\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/545780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=545779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=545779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=545779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}