Exit West (Yann Demange, Riz Ahmed)

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Riz Ahmed Tackling Fantastical Love Story 'Exit West' for Obamas' Higher Ground Productions
Joe and Anthony Russo's AGBO is also producing the adaptation of the best-seller by Mohsin Hamid for Netflix.

Michelle and Barack Obama's Higher Ground Productions and Riz Ahmed are teaming up to tackle Exit West, an adaptation of the best-seller by Pakistani author Mohsin Hamid being developed by Netflix.

Ahmed is in negotiations to star and executive produce while Higher Ground is producing the feature, joining Joe and Anthony Russo’s AGBO, which has been working on an adaptation since 2017. Yann Demange, who directed drama White Boy Rick and '71, is being courted to direct.

The novel is about a young couple, Saeed and Nadia, living in an unnamed city amid a civil war who flee using a system of magical doors that lead to different locations around the globe.

Ahmed would play Saeed in what is described as a love story with elements of fantasy and magical realism.

No writer is on board at this stage.

Higher Ground is sitting pretty after its documentary American Factory, made with Participant Media, won the Oscar for best doc feature at this year’s Academy Awards.

Ahmed is coming off the Berlin Film Festival premiere of Mogul Mowgli, a drama he co-wrote and stared in, and which won a FIPRESCI prize at fest. Last September, rock drama Sound of Metal, starring Ahmed and directed by Darius Marder, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and was acquired by Amazon Studios. The movie will roll out theatrically Aug. 14, 2020.

The actor, who has also appeared in blockbusters Venom and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, is repped by WME, Gordon & French.

via THR