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Barack Obama ‘scared the f**k out of’ Hollywood director with upcoming movie notes

September 29, 2023 | | Print Article

Hollywood director Sam Esmail said former President Barack Obama “scared the f**k” out of him.

Esmail, of “Mr. Robot” and “Homecoming” fame, is directing the much-anticipated Netflix disaster movie “Leave the World Behind,” adapted from author Rumaan Alam’s 2020 novel and starring Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawk, and Mahershala Ali.

It is set to be released on December 8, and it is the first fictional film to be executive produced by Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground Productions.


(Video: YouTube)

The former president evidently was so impressed with Alam’s novel that he added it to his 2021 summer reading list, but, when it came to the film version, Esmail told Vanity Fair, “He had a lot of notes.”

“[A] trope of the disaster genre is that you’re set up with a few characters who are divided and then they come together and defeat or overcome or get through what’s occurring. But that is just not true to real life. So the work begins now,” Esmail said. “It’s not really a message film, it’s more of a reflection on where we’re at as a society. But if there is a message, it’s a warning.”

The former president reportedly had thoughts about the screenplay and would send them to Esmail.

“In the original drafts of the script, I definitely pushed things a lot farther than they were in the film, and President Obama, having the experience he does have, was able to ground me a little bit on how things might unfold in reality,” Esmail said.

“I am writing what I think is fiction, for the most part, I’m trying to keep it as true to life as possible, but I’m exaggerating and dramatizing,” he continued. “And to hear an ex-president say you’re off by a few details…I thought I was off by a lot! The fact that he said that scared the f**k out of me.”

Obama’s notes reflected his observations about “human nature, particularly the way fissures form between people who might otherwise find common cause,” according to Vanity Fair.

“He had a lot of notes about the characters and the empathy we would have for them,” Esmail said. “I have to say he is a big movie lover, and he wasn’t just giving notes about things that were from his background. He was giving notes as a fan of the book, and he wanted to see a really good film.”

The Obamas’ multi-year contract with online streaming giant Netflix began in 2018 with a reported $50 million deal to produce and write documentaries and shows.

Since then, the partnership has produced a lot of backlash for what many see as little more than political propaganda.

As BizPac Review reported, the duo’s first slate of projects in 2019 included “American Factory,” which takes place in a post-industrial Ohio and is about a Chinese billionaire who opens a plant in a struggling town, putting 2,000 people to work.

“The Fifth Risk” was about the transition and political appointments that took place at the start of the Trump administration, specifically at the Department of Energy, Department of Agriculture, and Department of Commerce.

More recently, Netflix was trashed for “Becoming,” a documentary about Michelle Obama produced by documentary filmmaker Katy Chevigny, wife of Special Counsel Jack Smith.

Melissa Fine
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