Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. French and Saunders. Ant and Dec. Now it’s time to get ready for your new dream screen duo: Rihanna and Lupita Nyong’o.
‘After a dramatic negotiation session at the Cannes Film Festival, Netflix has nabbed a film project pairing Grammy winner Rihanna with Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o,’ Entertainment Weekly report. ‘Ava DuVernay (Selma) will direct and Issa Rae (Insecure) is writing the screenplay. According to sources, Netflix landed the project in a very aggressive bid, beating out multiple other suitors.’
And it’s all down to Twitter. Yes, really...
The movie pitch is said to have started as a viral Tumblr post in 2015 from user ‘elizabitchtaylor,’ alongside a FROW snap of Rihanna and Nyong’o at a Miu Miu fashion show in 2014: ‘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,’ she wrote.
In April, the photo was shared again on social media by users @blaquepink and @1800SADGAL.
Both the Grammy-winning singer and Oscar-nominated actor took notice, expressing interest in the project on Twitter. ‘I'm down if you are,’ Lupita tweeted at the singer. ‘I'm in Pit'z,’ was RiRi’s response.
DuVernay appeared to confirm the news, retweeted the story with the caption: ‘We deserve nice things.’
Are Twitter users the new film producers? Apparently so.
Issa Rae’s team confirmed to Vanity Fair the ‘project is in the works, adding that the original Twitter users who imagined the concept for this film will be credited and included in some form.’
Genius.
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