Southside With You about Barack Obama's first date with Michelle finds lead actors
Parker Sawyers and Tika Sumpter will star in the upcoming romance drama
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The upcoming romance-drama about the Obamas’ first date has found its two leads.
Parker Sawyers and Tika Sumpter will play the US president and First Lady in Southside With You, about the summer afternoon in 1989 when young associate Barack Obama attempted to woo his future wife, Michelle Robinson.
The couple visit the Art Institute of Chicago, before attending a screening of Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing and ending their night with a kiss over some ice-cream. The site of this first smooch is marked with a memorial and they were married three years later.
Richard Tenne will make his directorial debut on the film and has also written the screenplay. Shooting is expected to begin in Chicago this August.
Reports have suggested that Southside With You will echo another indie classic, Before Sunrise from Richard Linklater, in which Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy played strangers who spend the night strolling around Vienna falling in love after meeting on a train.
Sawyers has recently wrapped filming on Snowden and will next be starring in The Autopsy of Jane Doe with Brian Cox and Emile Hirsch.
Sumpter is best known for her role in James Brown biopic Get on Up and has finished work on Ride Along 2 with Olivia Munn.
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