'Harambe' the movie? Studio head promises he'll do it at 1 million retweets

Relativity CEO Ryan Kavanaugh is closer than you might think.
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Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

LOS ANGELES -- Relativity CEO Ryan Kavanaugh isn't shy on Twitter, where he tends to make brash proclamations, but hey, that's why we like the guy. He also apparently understands the undying power of Harambe on the internet.

Perhaps that's why one of his tweets from last week has garnered nearly a quarter-million retweets, already inching its way up Twitter's most-retweeted list -- and toward a possible movie about the late lowlands silverback gorilla.

On Sept. 15, Kavanaugh tweeted "1,000,000 retweets and I'll make a Harambe movie." Apparently, a lot of people want to see a Harambe movie, because 225,000 retweets and counting (even more than his 155,000 follower count) is astounding by any measurement.


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To put things in perspective, the top 10 most re-tweeted tweets of 2015 hailed from all five members of One Direction, plus President Obama, Kanye West, Leonard Nimoy, Caitlyn Jenner and King Salman of Saudi Arabia. (Ellen Degeneres' Oscar tweet still stands at No. 1 with 3.3 million RTs).

Kavanaugh is closing in on Jenner-like numbers (246,000+) with his Harambe tweet, despite being primarily known within Hollywood circles as the guy who in 2004 founded Relativity Media.

(The company has released dozens of films -- including Immortals, Safe Haven, 21 and Over and Beyond the Lights -- before it fell on tough times. Relativity emerged from bankruptcy in March and is once again ramping up its production slate.)

In case you were locked up in a cage this past May, Harambe was a gorilla who was killed by a zoo worker when a three-year-old boy climbed into a Cincinatti zoo's gorilla enclosure. The incident led to international outrage, with many animal lovers believing the situation could've been resolved without killing Harambe.

As for the Harambe movie, don't get your hopes up just yet -- Kavanaugh still needs 780,000 or so more retweets before the internet can hold him to his promise, which Relativity tells Mashable is real and not at all tongue-in-cheek.

Hey, a gorilla can dream, right?

Original image replaced with Mashable logo
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable
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