Universal Pictures dropped the first trailer Wednesday for One Night Only, a romantic comedy built around a premise that sounds like the genre’s answer to a sci-fi thriller: in a lightly alternate version of New York City, single people can legally have sex on exactly one night per year — and two strangers just found each other on it.
The film stars Monica Barbaro and Callum Turner as Allie and Owen, recently dumped Owen and hopeful romantic Allie, who meet during the city’s annual night but find themselves pulled toward something beyond a casual encounter, only to be repeatedly separated by missteps and complications before the clock runs out.
The director is Will Gluck, who carries genuine commercial credibility into the project. His 2023 film Anyone but You, starring Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell, earned over $220 million worldwide — a surprise box office performance that became one of the clearest signals that theatrical romantic comedies still draw audiences when the leads and writing click. Gluck also directed Easy A and Friends with Benefits, and for One Night Only he rewrote a script originally penned by Travis Braun.
Braun’s screenplay topped the 2024 Black List, the annual survey of Hollywood’s most-liked unproduced scripts. Universal picked it up in February 2025, with Gluck attached to direct. Barbaro and Turner joined the cast in August 2025, and principal photography began September 26, 2025, in New York City.
Both leads arrive with fresh momentum. Barbaro earned an Academy Award nomination for A Complete Unknown and has credits including Top Gun: Maverick, while Turner received a BAFTA nomination for Masters of the Air and appeared in the Fantastic Beasts franchise.
The supporting cast includes Molly Ringwald as Turner’s character’s mother, with LeVar Burton as her partner. Maya Hawke, Julia Fox, Este Haim, Ziwe, and King Princess round out the ensemble. At CinemaCon earlier this month, Universal framed the film around a deliberately self-aware pitch — the studio played a sizzle reel of classic rom-coms and told theater owners that “fewer romantic comedies than ever before” are being made, then offered One Night Only as this summer’s answer.
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The film opens in theaters August 7, produced through Gluck and Jacqueline Monetta’s Olive Bridge Entertainment.
