DOUBLE PHOENIX
One nation. Two films. Two marriages. Four phoenixes.
AMERICAN PHOENIX
A disgraced senator and a marginalized mother.
Both Exiled to Russia.
Facing down Napoleon’s Europe together but alone.
This is where American sovereignty was actually won.
Not on a battlefield.
In a ballroom.
In a frozen port.
In a diplomat’s refusal to back down.
American Phoenix is the War of 1812 story no one taught you.
WHITE HOUSE PHOENIX
The burning wasn’t the end.
That’s what stopped me cold.
A capital in ashes. A president in retreat. A dame defiant.
And somehow — what came after was stronger.
I wrote this book and screenplay because that arc felt urgent. It felt modern, not just 1814.
Evacuating the White House on 9/11/01 drove me to the 9/11 of the War of 1812.
What moment broke something open for you — and left it better?