Zendaya Film 'The Drama' References Lindsay McCrum's 'Chicks with Guns'
Kristoffer Borgli's 2026 film The Drama, starring Zendaya and Robert Pattinson, features a fictional photobook called 'Brainrot' that appears inspired by Lindsay McCrum's 2011 book Chicks with Guns. In the film, Pattinson's character Charlie becomes obsessed with the book after his fiancée Emma (Zendaya) confesses to having planned a school shooting as a teenager. McCrum's real book, published in 2011, contains 81 photographs of women posing with firearms, selected from 280 subjects aged 8 to 85. McCrum, who never owned a gun, told NPR she developed the idea after reading about the American gun industry in The Economist. She emphasized the project had no political agenda, aiming to show the diversity of women gun owners. The book sold out on Amazon on its first day. Art News and Salon noted similarities between the fictional and real books.
Key facts
- The Drama is a 2026 film directed by Kristoffer Borgli.
- The film stars Zendaya as Emma and Robert Pattinson as Charlie.
- Emma reveals she planned but did not carry out a school shooting as a teenager.
- Charlie becomes fixated on a fictional photobook called 'Brainrot' in the film.
- The fictional book features images of young women with firearms.
- Lindsay McCrum's Chicks with Guns was published in 2011.
- McCrum photographed 280 women and selected 81 images for the book.
- Participants ranged in age from 8 to 85.
- The book sold out on Amazon on its first day of release.
- McCrum said she had no political agenda for the project.
- McCrum developed the idea after reading about the gun industry in The Economist.
- More than 15 million women in the U.S. are gun owners.
Entities
Artists
- Zendaya
- Robert Pattinson
- Kristoffer Borgli
- Lindsay McCrum
Institutions
- A24
- Art News
- Salon
- NPR
- The Economist
- Amazon
Locations
- United States