A film based on the the presidential couple’s first date is in the works, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.
Southside With You will focus on the day in 1989 when first-year law student Barack Obama wooed the future Michelle Obama (then Robinson) with a trip around Chicago. Get On Up‘s Tika Sumpter will play the young first lady, while no actor has yet been cast to play her future husband.
Richard Tanne will direct from a script he wrote. The Worst Friends writer developed the idea with Sumpter, with whom he will executive produce. Tracey Bing and Stephanie Allain will produce for Allain’s Homegrown Pictures. The film aims to shoot in Chicago in July.
The Obamas, who were married in 1992, described their first date in an interview on the campaign trail for the president’s re-election in 2012. The young couple visited the Art Institute of Chicago, took a long walk around the city and went to see Do the Right Thing, the film by a relatively unknown Spike Lee that had just come out in theaters.
Tanne and Sumpter are repped by WME. Additionally, Sumpter is repped by Brookside Artists Management and Franklin, Weinrib; Tanne by Dobre Films and V/A.
Email: Austin.Siegemund-Broka@THR.com
Twitter: @Asiegemundbroka
