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The first photos of the movie about Barack and Michelle Obama‘s first date, Southside With You, have surfaced online.
Parker Sawyers is playing Obama, then a young associate, with Tika Sumpter playing his future wife, lawyer Michelle Robinson, in the romantic dramedy inspired by the president and first lady’s first date to see Spike Lee‘s Do the Right Thing in 1989. The date, on a summer afternoon and evening, also included a trip to the Art Institute of Chicago and the couple’s first kiss, outside of an ice cream parlor.
The Obamas talked about their first date in an interview on the campaign trail in Obama’s 2012 bid for re-election and have frequently noted that it included a screening of Do the Right Thing. The first couple even recorded a video message that played ahead of a 25th anniversary screening of the film at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art last year. In the video, Michelle Obama said of her husband’s selection, “directed by a guy that not that many people had heard of,” “He was trying to show me his sophisticated side by selecting an independent filmmaker, and it ended up being a pretty good movie — really great!”
The president, in turn, thanked Lee for “helping [him] impress Michelle.”
Southside With Me, written and directed by Richard Tanne, is currently in production. IM Global and State Street Pictures are producing.
Sumpter’s past credits include Ride Along, Get On Up, The Haves and Have Nots and Gossip Girl. Sawyers’ past credits include Hyde Park on Hudson, Zero Dark Thirty, Austenland and Jack Ryan and he will soon be seen in Oliver Stone‘s Snowden.
Sumpter and Tanne are also producing alongside Glendon Palmer and Robert Teitel. Tracey Bing is executive producing.
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