Callum Turner Brings One Night Only to Sydney as Director Will Gluck Returns to the City That Made ‘Anyone But You’ a Hit

Will Gluck knows Sydney well. Three years ago, the American filmmaker shot his romcom Anyone but You in the Australian city. On Tuesday he was back, this time with a leading man in tow.

BAFTA-nominated actor Callum Turner walked the Sydney premiere of One Night Only at Hoyts Entertainment Quarter on Tuesday, August 11, joined by writer-director-producer Gluck, ahead of the film’s release in Australian cinemas on Thursday. Media, invited guests and a large crowd were welcomed with a Manhattan Blue cocktail, courtesy of Johnnie Walker Blue, before the pair took to the stage to introduce the film.

For Gluck, it was familiar ground.

The director shot Anyone but You in and around Sydney in 2023, a modern take on Much Ado About Nothing that paired Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell against the harbour and the New South Wales coast. The film was written off early after a soft opening. It went on to become one of the decade’s surprise hits, taking more than US$200 million worldwide on the strength of word of mouth and a long social-media afterlife. It also renewed studio interest in theatrical romantic comedies.

That track record is the context in which One Night Only arrives.

The film returns Gluck to the high-concept adult comedy that has run through much of his career since Easy A. Turner plays Owen, a New York pizza-shop owner whose long-term relationship is upended over a single night. Monica Barbaro, an Academy Award nominee for A Complete Unknown, plays Allie, an aspiring singer scraping a living writing jingles. In the story, premarital sex has been outlawed in the United States except for a single 12-hour exemption period each year. The film is set during that night, showing what these two strangers get up to on that day. The setup is built for the kind of absurd comedic momentum Gluck favours.

Turner spent Tuesday in Sydney showing that his preparation went beyond the script. Earlier in the day the actor and director met creators at Sydney restaurant Appizza. Turner showed off some of the pizza-making as he served and mingled with social media creators. The unique event is a sign of how thoroughly the modern press tour now runs through social platforms.

Turner himself brings strong experience to One Night Only. The London-born actor earned a BAFTA Best Actor nomination in 2019 for the BBC thriller The Capture. He held an American accent for close to a year to play Major John “Bucky” Egan in Apple TV+’s Masters of the Air, and rowed his way through George Clooney’s The Boys in the Boat as Olympic oarsman Joe Rantz. One Night Only marks a turn toward lighter, more commercial work for an actor whose recent roles have leaned dramatic.

The Sydney premiere is the centrepiece of their Australian promotional run. Turner and Gluck are due to finish the tour on Wednesday with a series of media engagements at locations across the city, before the film opens nationally.

One Night Only release in Australia cinemas this Thursday, 13 August