A drama about the summer afternoon in 1989 when Barack Obama and his future first lady, Michelle Robinson, had their first date is scheduled to begin filming this summer in Chicago, the couple’s hometown, Deadline Hollywood reports.
The film, Southside With You, will feature Tika Sumpter (Get on Up) as Michelle Obama, who was born Michelle Robinson, while the search continues to cast the young future president, the report says. Filming is set to begin in July in Chicago.
Richard Tanne (Worst Friends and The Roman) is heading up the independent feature using his own screenplay, and former Warner Independent executive Tracey Bing and Columbia Pictures alum Stephanie Allain (Hustle & Flow and Beyond the Lights) are producing the film for Allain’s Homegrown Pictures, the entertainment site writes. The project originated with executive producers Tanne and Sumpter, who created the script together.
The courtship is the stuff of legend.
“Obama, then an idealistic first-year Harvard Law student, took a summer job as an associate at Chicago law firm Sidley Austin where he fell for lawyer Michelle Robinson, his younger boss,” Deadline Hollywood writes. “Southside With You spans the day she agreed to go out with him when the two visited the Art Institute, took a long walk, and caught a showing of Spike Lee’s new film Do The Right Thing. They were married in 1992.”
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Read more at Deadline Hollywood.