MPI Original Films (MPI) secured the rights to adapt Amity Shlaes’s New York Times best-selling biography Coolidge into a feature film. The movie will chronicle the improbable rise of Calvin Coolidge, the 30th president of the United States, and the decade of prosperity that flourished under his leadership. 

A century ago, America faced challenges much like today’s—political division, war, pandemic, unrest, and a budget crisis. When President Harding died in 1923, few expected much from the quiet Vice President Calvin Coolidge, sworn in by his father in rural Vermont. Viewed as a placeholder, Coolidge surprised the nation with his steady, no-nonsense leadership, believing restraint often yields the best results. Under his watch, the 1920s flourished—electricity spread, cars became common, and the federal deficit turned into a surplus. The film will explore how this understated leader became the architect of an era of prosperity, proving that less can indeed be more.

MPI’s director of creative development, Nicole Roewe, who previously wrote the forthcoming MPI feature Motherland—starring Miriam Silverman (The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window), Holland Taylor (The Chair, Hollywood), and Néstor Carbonell (Shōgun, The Morning Show)—is currently working on the screenplay.