Margot Robbie is set to star in The Week of Pain, a new feature from writer-director Kristoffer Borgli. A24 will produce and finance the project, with Ari Aster and Lars Knudsen’s Square Peg producing alongside Dilemma Films and Robbie’s LuckyChap.
That is the central confirmed information for now. The film’s story, Robbie’s character, the rest of the cast, a production timetable and a release plan have not been disclosed. The title itself is therefore the most concrete early clue to a project that otherwise remains deliberately undefined.
A new collaboration around Borgli
The Week of Pain reunites Borgli with A24 and Square Peg after The Drama, the filmmaker’s April release starring Robert Pattinson and Zendaya. That film was described as an original dramedy set around a wedding week thrown off course by a childhood secret. It earned $135 million worldwide from a reported $28 million budget.
In practical terms, the new film joins a creative relationship that has already delivered a commercially successful original feature. “Original” matters here: it means the project is not presented as a sequel, remake or adaptation tied to an existing screen franchise. With plot details unavailable, there is no basis yet to classify The Week of Pain more narrowly than a Borgli-directed feature starring Robbie.
Square Peg’s involvement is also notable because the banner is led by Aster and Knudsen, while LuckyChap gives Robbie a producing role through her own company as well as a leading role in front of the camera. Dilemma Films is the other producing partner named on the project. A24’s role is broader still, encompassing both production and financing.
Financing is the process of providing the money required to make a film; producing covers the work of organizing and shepherding the production. Those credits can overlap among several companies, as they do here. None of the announced companies’ roles reveal the film’s eventual distribution format, release date or rating.
What Borgli’s past work may—and may not—suggest
Borgli previously made Dream Scenario and Sick of Myself, films associated with uncomfortable social dynamics and sharply awkward humor. That background makes it reasonable to expect that audiences will look for a similar sensibility in The Week of Pain: drama shaped by unease, embarrassment or darkly comic pressure rather than straightforward broad comedy.
But that is interpretation, not a confirmed description of the new movie. A director’s earlier films can indicate recurring interests and tone, yet they do not establish a new story’s plot, genre or character relationships. At this stage, it would be speculation to claim that Robbie is playing a particular kind of role, that the film concerns an ordeal lasting a week, or that it repeats the setup of any prior Borgli title.
The phrase “cringe comedy” is often used for humor rooted in social discomfort: the audience laughs while also feeling the strain of an ill-advised remark, a public misstep or a character’s inability to recognize how badly a situation is going. Borgli’s work has been linked to that mode, but no official synopsis has confirmed whether The Week of Pain will use it.
The most useful takeaway is simpler. The combination of Borgli’s existing body of work, A24 and Square Peg’s return, and Robbie’s participation creates a clear expectation of an adult-oriented original film with a potentially abrasive or uncomfortable edge. Expectations, however, are not plot information. The project will need a logline, trailer or fuller cast announcement before viewers can judge how close that expectation is to the finished movie.
Robbie’s next screen chapter
Robbie most recently appeared as Cathy opposite Jacob Elordi’s Heathcliff in Warner Bros.’ Wuthering Heights. The literary romance reached $241 million worldwide. Her next announced major project beyond The Week of Pain is an Ocean’s 11 prequel co-starring Bradley Cooper, who is also directing.
Robbie said at CinemaCon 2026 that the prequel follows an epic heist at the 1962 Monaco Grand Prix. It is separate from a forthcoming sequel intended to bring back George Clooney and the team from the 2001 film. The distinction is useful: the prequel is a period-set story connected to the broader Ocean’s property, while The Week of Pain has been introduced as a new Borgli film without disclosed franchise ties.
That contrast makes The Week of Pain an intriguing addition to Robbie’s slate. One project is explicitly built around a recognizable heist series and a historic racing-event setting; the other has no public premise at all. The latter’s early appeal is thus anchored in the people making it rather than in a familiar concept.
Why the early announcement matters
Early film announcements frequently establish the creative foundation before the production itself is publicly visible. A star, writer-director, financier and producing partners can be attached long before viewers learn where a movie is set, who else appears in it, or when cameras will roll. That is exactly the position The Week of Pain occupies.
For audiences, it is a reason to track future casting and story updates rather than a reason to infer details that have not been stated. For the companies involved, the package pairs a prominent performer and producer with a filmmaker whose previous work has a recognizable off-kilter dramatic-comic identity. The successful performance of The Drama adds relevant recent context, but it does not guarantee that the new film will resemble it commercially or creatively.
There is also a broader appetite for high-profile screen projects with distinct creative identities, whether they are new films or adaptations of established worlds. For a separate example of how audiences receive early details about an upcoming franchise project, see the first look at the upcoming Magic: The Gathering animated series. The Week of Pain, by contrast, currently has no imagery, story material or release information publicly attached to it.
For now, the announcement offers a compact but meaningful picture: Robbie will lead a Kristoffer Borgli feature; A24 will finance and produce; Square Peg, Dilemma Films and LuckyChap will produce; and the film is being developed without public plot details. Everything beyond that—including its setting, supporting cast, tone, schedule and route to audiences—remains to be revealed.
