Former U.S. President Barack Obama reportedly offered notes on the upcoming Julia Roberts-led psychological thriller “Leave The World Behind” which hails from “Mr. Robot” and “Homecoming” creator Sam Esmail.
Based on a 2020 novel by Rumaan Alam, the story begins when a family vacation on Long Island is interrupted by two strangers with news of a blackout.
As the threat grows more imminent, both families must decide how best to survive the potential crisis – all while grappling with their own place in this collapsing world.
The film is being produced by Barack and Michelle Obama’s production company, Higher Ground, and Esmail tells Vanity Fair that Obama got quite involved creatively:
“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.
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. 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—- out of me.
He had a lot [of] notes about the characters and the empathy we would have for them. 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.”
Mahershala Ali, Ethan Hawke, Kevin Bacon, Myha’la Herrold, Farrah Mackenzie and Charlie Evans co-star in the film which Netflix will premiere at AFI Fest on October 25th ahead of a release on the streamer on December 8th.
