Last month, Collider broke the news that Joe and Anthony Russo were teaming with Barack and Michelle Obama to produce Exit West for Netflix with Riz Ahmed poised to star. Though production has halted around the world due to the coronavirus pandemic, Joe Russo gave Collider's editor-in-chief Steve Weintraub an update on the project, which sounds like it may be further along than we previously thought.

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"We have a project we're really excited about with the Obamas called Exit West, which is based on a tremendous book, a beautifully written novel, heart-wrenching, so that's another project we have at Netflix," said Russo, whose AGBO Films produced the streamer's Chris Hemsworth movie Extraction coming out on Friday.

Russo confirmed that Ahmed will star, and said he's "really looking forward" to Exit West, adding "it could definitely get in front of cameras soon. The question is, obviously, 'when?' and that's a question everyone in the industry is asking at the moment."

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Image via Collider/ArcLight Cinemas

On Monday, Russo detailed what it would take for production to resume -- namely, widespread testing -- and he explained why safety is paramount on set.

"Sets are crowded. There's a lot of people on set, [so there's] certainly a high risk for a breakout amongst a crew. The questions are, 'how do we protect each other and ourselves?'

That speaks to the point I made yesterday, in which I suggested we may see far fewer people on set in the post-pandemic future. Though life as we know it will surely change, it's nice knowing that the Russos and the Obamas are working to bring a life-affirming novel like Exit West to a global audience in need of hope more than ever.

Exit West tackles the global refugee crisis and takes place in an unidentified country in the Middle East, where young Saeed (Ahmed) and burqa-wearing Nadia flee their home after Saeed’s mother is killed by a stray bullet stemming from violent clashes between guerrillas and the local government. The couple joins other migrants traveling to safer havens via carefully guarded doors. Through one door, they wind up in a crowded camp on the Greek Island of Mykonos. Through another, they secure a private room in an abandoned London mansion populated mostly by displaced Nigerians. A third door takes them to California’s Marin County. In each location, their relationship is tested by their struggle to find food, adequate shelter and a sense of belonging among emigrant communities. The allegorical tale shows the contrast between the migrants’ tenuous daily reality and that of the privileged native population who’d prefer that they disappear.

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Image via Annapurna Pictures

Yann Demange is slated to direct the adaptation of Mohsin Hamid‘s bestseller, and joining the Russos and the Obamas as producers will be AGBO's Mike Larocca and Higher Ground's Tonia Davis and Priya Swaminathan.

Up next for the Russos is Cherry, which stars Tom Holland as a strung-out bank robber. The brothers have also spent the past eight months working with Avengers: Endgame writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely on a top-secret project based on a well-known IP. Click here for a first-look at Cherry, and click here to watch the latest trailer for Extraction.