Former US President Barack Obama sent “lots of script notes” to Sam Esbeildirector of the upcoming disaster film “Leave the World Behind”.

The thriller is adaptation of Ruman Alam’s 2020 novel of the same namewhich Obama had included on his list of recommended books to read in the summer of 2021.

Starring Julia Roberts, Mahershala Ali and Ethan Hawke, the film is the first fiction from Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground Productions.

In a new interview with Vanity Fair, the director talked about the process of bringing the book to the screen.

“In the early drafts of the script, I definitely pushed things a lot further than they were in the movie, and President Obama, having the experience that he has, was able to ground me a little bit in how things might actually play out.Sam Esmail explained.

“I write what I believe to be fiction, for the most part, I try to keep it as true to life as possible, but I do exaggerate and dramatize. And hearing a former president say “you’re inaccurate on some details.” I thought I was very inaccurate! The fact that he said that scared mehe emphasized.

“He had a lot of notes on the characters.” the director said. “I have to say that he is a big movie buff and he wasn’t just giving notes about things that came from his past. He was taking notes as a fan of the book and wanted to see a really good moviehe underlined.