Universal Pictures has released a new promotional featurette for One Night Only, celebrating the return of the modern romantic comedy to the big screen.
Directed by Will Gluck, the filmmaker behind Easy A, Friends with Benefits and Anyone But You, the film stars Monica Barbaro and Callum Turner as two strangers attempting to survive the most chaotic night of the year.
One Night Only takes place in a slightly fictionalised version of New York City where premarital sex is illegal for almost the entire year. Single people are given just one exception: a twelve-hour period during which they are legally permitted to find a partner.
The annual event turns the city into a frantic playground filled with parties, elaborate plans and people desperately attempting to make the most of their limited opportunity.
Allie and Owen expect to spend the night with other people, but both are unexpectedly abandoned. With their carefully arranged plans falling apart, the two strangers collide and begin wandering through New York together.
Neither of them is particularly enthusiastic about the night or the artificial pressure surrounding it. Their shared frustration creates an immediate connection, although their different personalities ensure that the evening is anything but straightforward.
Monica Barbaro stars as Allie following acclaimed performances in Top Gun: Maverick and A Complete Unknown. Callum Turner plays Owen, continuing his recent run of romantic and dramatic roles after Masters of the Air and Eternity.
The supporting cast includes Maya Hawke, Julia Fox, King Princess, Ziwe, Ben Marshall, Ella Loudon, Molly Ringwald and LeVar Burton.
The new featurette positions One Night Only as a celebration of the theatrical romantic comedy, combining a deliberately provocative premise with the familiar pleasures of mismatched personalities, accidental intimacy and two people gradually discovering that their ruined plans may have brought them exactly where they needed to be.
Although its premise has invited comparisons to The Purge, the film replaces violence with the anxieties of contemporary dating. The unusual law creates a heightened version of the pressure many people experience while searching for romance, attraction and genuine emotional connection.
The story is less concerned with the physical freedom offered by the night than with the frantic pursuit surrounding it. Allie and Owen are surrounded by people determined to force something meaningful to happen, while their own relationship develops unexpectedly through conversation, conflict and repeated encounters across the city.
Gluck co-wrote the screenplay from an original script by Travis Braun and produced the film through Olive Bridge Entertainment alongside Jacqueline Monetta.
With Barbaro and Turner at the centre of its high-concept story, One Night Only promises a witty, romantic and slightly chaotic examination of what happens when an entire society attempts to schedule intimacy — and two strangers accidentally find something real.
One Night Only arrives in US cinemas on August 7, 2026, followed by its UK theatrical release on August 28, 2026.
Watch the new featurette below.
