A photo of Rihanna and Lupita Nyong'o went viral and the internet begged for a movie — now it's happening

Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images

The INSIDER Summary:

• Netflix is developing a movie with Rihanna and Lupita Nyong'o.
• The idea for the project started out as an internet meme.
• Twitter users joked about them doing a heist movie after a photo of them together went viral.

Movie ideas come from everywhere, and this one came from a tweet.

Netflix is developing a movie that will pair pop superstar Rihanna with Oscar winner Lupita Nyong'o, according to Entertainment Weekly.

The project will be directed by Ava DuVernay, who made the Oscar-nominated documentary "13th" for Netflix, and who also directed 2014's "Selma." Issa Rae, best known for creating the HBO series "Insecure," is in talks to write the script for the project.

It all started when a photo of Nyong'o and Rihanna sitting together at the 2014 Miu Miu fashion show went viral in April 2017.

It became a meme, with Twitter and Tumblr users demanding that the two pair up as movie characters.

Nyong'o and Rihanna were into the idea.

Fans clamored for DuVernay to get involved, and she obliged.

Then Rae joined in.

Now it's actually happening.

Chatter about the project online has coalesced around a concept where the two run con jobs together, but it doesn't look like Rae has written a script yet and it's unclear what the final story will look like. Bidding over the project at the Cannes Film Festival was "very aggressive," according to Entertainment Weekly.

Citing anonymous sources, Entertainment Weekly said there's a planned 2018 start date for the movie, for after DuVernay finishes her current film, a big-budget adaptation of "A Wrinkle in Time" for Disney. DuVernay is also involved in several other projects, including producing "Queen Sugar" for OWN and making a film about the 1973 Palace of Versailles fashion show.

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