Production is officially underway on Women Like Us, the new Netflix original dramedy starring Whoopi Goldberg, Jenifer Lewis, Vanessa Williams, and Vivica A. Fox, a cast that brings together two sets of on-screen reunions. Goldberg and Lewis previously starred together in Sister Act and its sequel, Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit, while Williams and Fox co-starred in the 1997 classic Soul Food.
Directed by Tasha Smith, the film follows a recently widowed woman who is whisked away to the Hamptons by her lifelong best friends and sister on what should have been her 30th wedding anniversary. What begins as a girls’ getaway turns into a reckoning with grief, marriage, and the decades-long sisterhood that’s carried them through it all, alongside the realization that dreams don’t come with an expiration date.
Ali Kinney (Ginny & Georgia, Love Life, The Crossover) wrote the screenplay, with additional writing from Tracy Oliver (Girls Trip, The Blackening, The Sun Is Also a Star). Smith continues to build one of the more prolific directing résumés in the business, with recent credits including Bel-Air, Harlem, Mayor of Kingstown, and Survival of the Thickest.
The film marks the first collaboration between MACRO Film Studios and Higher Ground, the production company founded by Barack and Michelle Obama. Michelle Obama executive produces for Higher Ground alongside Charles D. King for MACRO, with James Lopez and Poppy Hanks producing for MACRO and Anikah McLaren and Mark R. Wright producing for Higher Ground. The partnership has additional projects on the way at Netflix as well, including the series All the Sinners Bleed and The Altruists.