Netflix is creating a movie starring Rihanna and Lupita Nyongo thanks mostly to Twitter

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Netflix is creating a movie starring Rihanna and Lupita Nyong’o, thanks mostly to Twitter

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Netflix is about to make all of our dreams come true. It’s turning what started as a meme about actress Lupita Nyong’o and Grammy Award-winning singer Rihanna playing scammers and computer geniuses into a reality, Entertainment Weekly reports. Netflix reportedly beat out several other bidders at the Cannes Film Festival to snag a deal to create a movie starring Nyong’o and Rihanna, and directed by Ava DuVernay, the filmmaker behind Selma and The 13th. HBO’s Insecure creator and star Issa Rae will write the screenplay, Vanity Fair confirmed.

The idea for the movie got its start on Tumblr two years ago, when someone posted a photo (pictured above) of Rihanna and Nyong’o at a Miu Miu fashion show in 2014. The photo was perfectly captioned with “They look like they’re in a heist movie with Rihanna as the tough-as-nails leader/master thief and Lupita as the genius computer hacker.”

Last month, three years after the photo appeared on Tumblr, the photo resurfaced on Twitter with the following caption: “Rihanna looks like she scams rich white men and lupita is the computer smart best friend that helps plan the scans.”

That’s when Nyong’o, Rihanna, DuVernay and Rae got roped into the mix. A representative for Rae told Vanity Fair that the people who helped develop the story line via social media will be credited in the film in some way.

The movie is slated to begin production next year. This is, perhaps, the best thing Twitter has ever done for us. DuVernay seems to have confirmed the news on Twitter.

I’ve reached out to Netflix and will update this story if I hear back.

Featured Image: Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images/Getty Images

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May 22, 2017 at 10:48AM