Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground, Anonymous Content Making Film of ‘Baldwin: A Love Story’

Higher Ground and Anonymous Content will produce a feature film adaptation of “Baldwin: A Love Story,” Nicholas Boggs’ biography of James Baldwin, the writer and activist.

Anonymous Content has closed a deal to option the book, as well as a deal for Boggs and his partner, Marlon James, the bestselling novelist behind “The Disappearers” and “A Brief History of Seven Killings,” to adapt it for the screen. Higher Ground is the media company founded by Barack and Michelle Obama. The former president has previously expressed admiration for Baldwin’s writing and recently featured his masterpiece “The Fire Next Time” on his podcast series “A Great Book with Barack Obama.”

Anonymous Content has produced such films and shows as “Nickel Boys,” “True Detective,” and “Spotlight.” Its upcoming projects include Alex Gibney’s documentary “Musk,” Zoe Kazan’s “East of Eden,” and “The Statement,” which reunites the company with “Spotlight” writer and director Tom McCarthy. The company recently hired a new president and CEO in Darren Walker, the former president of the Ford Foundation. It was Walker who spilled the beans on the project at Bloomberg Screentime conference on Thursday.

“Baldwin: A Love Story” drew on recently uncovered archival material and fresh reporting to look at Baldwin’s intimate and artistic relationships, including those with his mentor, the Black American painter Beauford Delaney; with his lover and muse, the Swiss painter Lucien Happersberger; and with his collaborators, the famed Turkish actor Engin Cezzar and the French artist Yoran Cazac. Baldwin’s body of work includes “Go Tell It on the Mountain” and “Giovanni’s Room.” His life and legacy were previously examined in the Oscar-nominated documentary “I Am Not Your Negro.”

Producers on the film include Walker and David Levine for Anonymous Content; Anikah McLaren for Higher Ground; and Howard Gertler. Boggs and James will serve as executive producers.