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By Movieguide® Staff
E414 Productions is developing BROKEN AND RESTORED, a biopic about the marriage of Donnie Bowman — biological father of Vice President JD Vance — and his wife Cheryl, with cameras set to roll in Cincinnati, Ohio, later this year.
“This story deserves to be told, and working alongside Cheryl Bowman as a creative partner ensures exactly that,” producer Brittany McVicker, an executive at E414 Productions, said in a press release. “We couldn’t be more excited to bring this to the screen together.”
The screenplay comes from Sam Juergens, the key creative producer behind the Jimmy Stewart biopic JIMMY, which hits theaters Nov. 6. Sharon Oliphant of 21 Five Films will produce alongside McVicker.
E414 Productions has acquired the life and book rights to BROKEN AND RESTORED, with Cheryl Bowman signed on as a creative partner. The Bowman family’s story, until now, has stayed largely outside public view.
“BROKEN AND RESTORED brings the full narrative into focus for the first time — a deeply personal account of struggle, faith and the grace that carried them through,” the press release reads.
Related: How VP Hopeful JD Vance Found His Way Back to Christ
The movie traces how the Bowmans’ marriage went from fractured to steady — and how their children grew up to become, in the announcement’s words, “a successful businessman, a missionary, a pastor and even the current Vice President of the United States.”
Vance, born James Donald Bowman, grew up mainly under the roof of his mother and grandparents in Middletown, Ohio, after his parents divorced. He reconnected with Donnie as a teenager and started attending the Pentecostal church his father joined after his conversion. Donnie Bowman died in Nov. 2023 at age 64.
“What really brought me back to Christ was finding a wife and falling in love and thinking about what was required of me as a husband and as a father,” Vance told the Faith & Freedom Coalition in 2024, in remarks Movieguide® previously reported. He joined the Catholic Church in 2019.
For Juergens, BROKEN AND RESTORED is his second faith-rooted biopic in a row. JIMMY stars KJ Apa as Jimmy Stewart and Neal McDonough as Stewart’s father Alexander — a role McDonough talked through with Robby Baehr and Jeremy Carroll on Movieguide®’s “We Who Dad” podcast last week.
“First of all, Jimmy Stewart and John Wayne were probably the two guys…I watched these guys acting when I was a kid, and I was like, ‘That’s something I would love to be able to do,’” McDonough said on the podcast.
Director Aaron Burns has talked about one of JIMMY’s pivotal scenes — Alexander Stewart handing his son the 91st Psalm before he shipped off to combat in World War II. That father-son thread anchors JIMMY, and now Juergens turns to a different dad whose own life took a sharp turn toward faith.
Cincinnati makes geographic sense for the shoot. The Bowman family’s roots reach across southwest Ohio, the same region where Vance grew up before heading off to the Marines, Ohio State and Yale Law.
Casting and additional production details will roll out later, E414 Productions and 21 Five Films say. There’s no release date yet.
Stories about broken marriages that don’t end in courtrooms — and dads who come home different — don’t always crack the Hollywood biopic shortlist. This one is trying to. For Christian families who’ve watched grace work its way through their own people, BROKEN AND RESTORED looks like one worth keeping an eye on.
Read Next: All About HILLBILLY ELEGY, Based on JD Vance’s Book
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