Sci-fi films, young-adult thriller among Obamas' Netflix projects

LOS ANGELES • Barack and Michelle Obama's production company last Friday announced six new projects in development for Netflix, including a love story with a supernatural twist and a young-adult thriller.

The former United States president and first lady's Higher Ground Productions will adapt British-Pakistani author Mohsin Hamid's 2017 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.

Other projects include a science-fiction movie called Satellite, which will be produced with T Street, a production company run by Knives Out (2019) 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 along with New Zealand mountaineer Edmund Hillary.

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 is also developing two television 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 dates.

The Obamas signed a multi-year production deal with Netflix in 2018 after Mr Obama stepped down as US president in 2017.

Their earlier Netflix projects include American Factory (2019), which won an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature last year.

REUTERS