Lupita Nyong’o, Rihanna to Star in Viral Scammer Flick Directed by Ava DuVernay, Written by Issa Rae

It all started with one tweet on an April afternoon. It simply told the story of two friends who scam rich white men. I’d like to think of it as a modern-day telling of Thelma & Louise. Just blacker.

https://twitter.com/1800SADGAL/status/854422228024406016

And it caught the eyes of Lupita Nyong’o and Rihanna:

https://twitter.com/Lupita_Nyongo/status/855254458359586816

https://twitter.com/rihanna/status/856283883498819584

And then Ava DuVernay and Issa Rae jumped in on the action:

https://twitter.com/ava/status/856318715968634881

https://twitter.com/IssaRae/status/856293244077883392

Thanks to the powers of the viral internet story, Nyong’o and Rihanna are set to star in the DuVernay-directed film, written by Rae, for Netflix. According to Entertainment Weekly, the scammer story was in a huge bidding war, with Netflix coming out on top.

Rae is already penning the script, and the film is said to go into production in 2018. Now, what kind of cut will the person behind the tweet get?