Obamas' Higher Ground Teams With Anonymous Content for Baldwin Film

Higher Ground, the media company founded by Barack and Michelle Obama, will produce a feature film adaptation of "Baldwin: A Love Story," Nicholas Boggs' 2025 biography of the writer and activist James Baldwin, alongside Anonymous Content.

Anonymous Content has closed a deal to option the book. The studio has also secured a separate agreement for Boggs and his partner, Marlon James — the bestselling novelist behind "The Disappearers" and "A Brief History of Seven Killings" — to write the screenplay adaptation.

Darren Walker revealed the project on Thursday at the Bloomberg Screentime conference. Walker, the former president of the Ford Foundation, recently joined Anonymous Content as its new president and CEO.

The option deal signals a high-profile pairing of subject and producers. Barack Obama has publicly expressed admiration for Baldwin's writing and recently featured "The Fire Next Time" on his podcast series "A Great Book with Barack Obama."

Anonymous Content's credits include "Nickel Boys," "True Detective," and the Oscar-winning "Spotlight." Its upcoming slate features Alex Gibney's documentary "Musk," Zoe Kazan's adaptation of "East of Eden," and "The Statement," which reunites the company with "Spotlight" writer-director Tom McCarthy.

"Baldwin: A Love Story" draws on recently uncovered archival material and fresh reporting to examine Baldwin's intimate and artistic relationships. The book profiles his mentor, the Black American painter Beauford Delaney; his lover and muse, the Swiss painter Lucien Happersberger; and his collaborators, the Turkish actor Engin Cezzar and the French artist Yoran Cazac.

Baldwin's body of work includes the novels "Go Tell It on the Mountain" and "Giovanni's Room." Raoul Peck's Oscar-nominated 2016 documentary "I Am Not Your Negro" previously examined his life and legacy on screen.

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

The adaptation brings Baldwin's story to a major streaming-era production pipeline, with two of the most closely watched names in publishing and film attached from the start.