Barack and Michelle Obama Set Rebecca Yarros’ ‘Variation’ for Film

Barack and Michelle Obama are heading into swoony territory. The former president and first lady’s production company Higher Ground is teaming up with ballerina Misty Copeland’s Life in Motion Productions to adapt Rebecca Yarros’ contemporary romance Variation as a film for Amazon MGM Studios.

The movie will be written by It Ends With Us screenwriter Christy Hall, putting Yarros’ emotionally charged Cape Cod love story in the hands of an A-list creative team.

From dragon wars to ballet and second chances

Best known for her blockbuster Empyrean romantasy series—Fourth Wing, Iron Flame and 2025’s Onyx Storm—Rebecca Yarros has become one of the most watched authors in genre fiction.

With Variation, released in November 2024, Yarros steps beyond dragons and war colleges into contemporary romance. The novel follows injured ballerina Allie Rousseau, who retreats to her Cape Cod summer home to heal, only to reunite with Coast Guard rescue swimmer Hudson Ellis and confront the tragedy that tore them apart.

Misty Copeland, who became the first Black female principal dancer at American Ballet Theatre in 2015, called it the perfect project for her company, noting the story’s focus on dance, movement and family. Fans on social media are already speculating whether Copeland might appear on screen as well as behind the camera.

Higher Ground doubles down on book-to-screen

The adaptation continues Higher Ground’s push into prestige literary projects, following films like Rustin, American Symphony and Leave the World Behind. It also deepens Yarros’ rapid expansion into Hollywood.

Amazon MGM is simultaneously developing a TV series based on the Empyrean books, with Yarros serving as executive producer and having already read multiple versions of the pilot script—”I love it,” she told Good Morning America.

Beyond Variation and the Empyrean show, other Yarros titles are also in the pipeline, including The Things We Leave Unfinished at Lionsgate and additional projects at Netflix and Amazon MGM, according to a roundup of Yarros adaptations.

For readers, the Obamas’ backing signals that Yarros’ work is firmly in the cultural mainstream, not just the bookish corner of TikTok and fantasy circles. With dragons headed to TV and a ballet-infused second-chance romance on its way to the big screen, fans of both her fantasy and contemporary novels will soon have multiple ways to see these stories come to life.