*After intense negotiations at the Cannes Film Festival, Netflix has nabbed a film project starring Grammy winner Rihanna and Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o, based on a storyline created entirely via Twitter.
Ava DuVernay has signed on to direct and “Insecure” star Issa Rae is in talks to write the screenplay. Twitter also lobbied for both ladies.
Sources tell EW that Netflix landed the project in a very aggressive bid, beating out multiple other suitors.
As previously reported, the project began when a user shared a 2014 photo of the two women in the front row of a Miu Miu fashion show, and someone retweeted it with the comment: “Rihanna looks like she scams rich white men and lupita is the computer smart best friend that helps plan the scams.”
Rihanna looks like she scams rich white men and lupita is the computer smart best friend that helps plan the scans https://t.co/PhWs1xd3nj
— WHOOPHERASSKOURTNI (@1800SADGAL) April 18, 2017
Twitter quickly recruited DuVernay (who is in post-production on “A Wrinkle in Time” for Disney) to direct, with Rae (whose second season of HBO’s “Insecure” will debut on July 23) to write.
All four women pledged their support to the project on Twitter, and now, so has Netflix…who has yet to comment.
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