Mohsin Hamid's 'Exit West' to be made into film by Obamas for Netflix

Barack and Michelle Obama’s production company on Friday announced six new projects in development for Netflix Inc, including a love story with a supernatural twist and a young adult thriller.

The former president and first lady’s Higher Ground Productions will adapt British-Pakistani author Mohsin Hamid’s novel Exit West into a film, according to a statement from Netflix. The book tells the story of a young couple who find magical doors to transport them to other places and land in the middle of a global refugee crisis. According to The New York Times, the upcoming project will star the Pakistani-British actor Riz Ahmed. 

Other film projects include a science-fiction movie called Satellite, which will be produced with T Street, a production company run by Star Wars director Rian Johnson and producer Ram Bergman. Another is Tenzing, the story of the Nepalese-Indian man who first reached the summit of Mount Everest with Sir Edmund Hillary of New Zealand.

The Young Wife is a feature film that follows a woman on the day of her wedding who feels out of sync as a storm approaches.

The company also is developing two TV series. Firekeeper’s Daughter is a thriller based on a young adult novel by Angeline Boulley about an 18-year-old Ojibwe tribe member who reluctantly goes undercover in a police investigation on her reservation.

The other series is a nature documentary about national parks.

Netflix said the projects will be released over the next few years but did not give exact release dates.

The Obamas signed a multiyear production deal with Netflix in 2018. Their earlier Netflix projects include “American Factory,” which won an Oscar in 2020 for best documentary.