Five Alternate President Movies

Today Daniel Day Lewis’s performance as our 16th President, Abraham Lincoln, already having been declared winner of the Best Actor Oscar in cinematic circles that have frantically been releasing denials of this secret crowning since it was first reported on Twitter (all those Tweets were subsequently deleted before any screen shots were captured) this past summer, finally hits theaters. Rather than a look at Lincoln’s whole life, it is a tale of The Great Emancipator’s noble struggle to repeal slavery.

This, as it must, got me to thinking. What other movies could be made about Presidents in which the story focused not on the particular President’s whole life but on something more, shall we say, singular? But let’s be clear here, people, we don’t want the same old-same old. We don’t want re-tellings of Watergate or Whitewater or Iran Contra. We want something singular and original. In the end, these five seemed to be the finest ideas.

5. Ike

The pitch: The engrossing account of Dwight D. Eisenhower’s struggle to sign the Federal Highway Act of 1956 into law. Who wouldn’t want to see this?!

4. Obama

The pitch: Set in President Obama’s pre-White House days, it is a whimsical Romantic Comedy meets Sports Movie, the uplifting re-telling of the courtship of a young Barack and Michelle. History is revised to feature a dramatic third act in which Obama plays an evil suitor of Michelle’s one on one in basketball for the right to ask for her hand in marriage.

3. King Mob

The pitch: Can’t Hardly Wait meets House Party……just, you know, set in 1829. Chronicling the infamously outrageous first inauguration of President Andrew Jackson, the newly sworn in Commander & Chief encounters disparate characters of various states and shapes who have traveled to Washington D.C. for the once in a lifetime event, all of whom have stories playing out. History is revised when Jackson meets a barmaid and falls in love.

2. Silent Cal

The pitch: Historical Drama meets Mumblecore in which President Calvin Coolidge, nicknamed “Silent Cal” on account of being a man of less than even a few words, goes through an entire day as Commander & Chief. A handheld camera follows him as he wakes up. He drinks coffee. He reads his daily brief. He meets with advisors. He meets with different advisors. He eats lunch while reviewing a proposal for legislation. He does paperwork. He meets with a committee. This proceeds for 80 minutes.

1. Taft

The pitch: A riveting and concise real time thriller which recounts the story of America’s most obese President becoming stuck in the White House bathtub and the heroic efforts to dislodge him.

WHAT ARE YOUR IDEAS FOR ALTERNATE PRESIDENT MOVIES?! TELL US BELOW!