Movies

Viral social media moments that deserve the Hollywood treatment


The breakout hit at this year’s Sundance festival was Zola (pictured, above), a comic thriller about a stripper who travels to Florida for a weekend of sex and violence. Zola earned rave reviews from attendees, but the most interesting thing about it is that it was based on a Twitter thread. In 2015, Aziah “Zola” Wells wrote 148 tweets about the weekend she had just experienced. It was incredible; recounting each new jaw-dropping twist with such breathless excitement that Hollywood soon came knocking.

And who could blame them? After years spent adapting the same novels, video games and comic books to diminishing returns, why wouldn’t the industry try something new by acquiring the rights to a wildly successful Twitter thread? If Zola is a success – which looks likely to be the case – then it will open the floodgates for a new breed of films derived from other viral intellectual property. Luckily, there are plenty of options …

Plane Bae

Remember the #PlaneBae saga, where a bored woman on a flight eavesdropped on a burgeoning flirtation between two attractive strangers sitting in the seats in front of her? Remember how the woman being tweeted about was so appalled that she wrote a damning statement that made us all question our addiction to oversharing online? This deserves to be a Jordan Peele horror film. Melissa McCarthy to play the eavesdropper. Zak Efron and Vanessa Hudgens to play the couple.

The 97-Year-Old Dater

In this 2017 Twitter thread, a woman recounts the time she accidentally went on an OkCupid date with a 97-year-old man. The date starts off weirdly, then gets sweet. And then, right at the end, finishes with full-blown horror. There might not be a market yet for films based on offers of nonagenarian cunnilingus, but that’s only because nobody has had the guts to debut one yet. Naomi Scott to play the girl, Robert Redford to play the old man. Sam Taylor-Johnson to direct.

Duck Army

In arguably the greatest Vine of all time, an unseen hand squeezes a rubber duck in a supermarket. It quacks. Then he squeezes an entire binful of rubber ducks, and they roar like a bloodthirsty invading army. There is so much story potential here that it’s ridiculous. Where did the ducks come from? What made them so angry? Why were they lying in wait in a supermarket? Was it an ambush? This will be a big-budget DreamWorks animation. Mel Gibson to voice all the ducks.

This Is America

In 2015, a video of the world’s angriest person went viral. The US woman was arguing with restaurant workers who had apparently put green peppers on her kebab because “my children don’t eat green things”. She launched into a racist tirade about the workers, before screaming: “This is America! You get it right the first time!” over and over again. And then, as she left, she banged her head on the door. I propose a Mr Bean-style movie about this woman, where she endures a series of increasingly elaborate pratfalls every time she is rude to people who don’t deserve it. Honestly, I don’t care who plays this. Steve-O in a wig could do it. Just so long as it gets made.



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