Forest Whitaker leads one of the greatest casts of the year in Lee Daniels’ The Butler, which has been one of the year’s early Oscar contenders for some time now.
The magnificent first trailer was released at the start of last month, giving us a very impressive look at Daniels’ upcoming drama, based on the real-life account of Eugene Allen, who served in the White House from 1952 to 1986. And now The Weinstein Company have released the film’s first poster.
THE BUTLER tells the story of a White House butler who served eight American presidents over three decades. The film traces the dramatic changes that swept American society during this time, from the civil rights movement to Vietnam and beyond, and how those changes affected this man’s life and family.
Whitaker takes the lead at the head of an exceptional cast, starring alongside Oprah Winfrey, John Cusack, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Jane Fonda, Terrence Howard, Lenny Kravitz, James Marsden, David Oyelowo, Melissa Leo, Vanessa Redgrave, Alan Rickman, Liev Schreiber, Robin Williams, Clarence Williams III, Jesse Williams, Minka Kelly, and Mariah Carey.
Daniels (Precious) is directing from a script penned by Danny Strong (Game Change, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay).
It’s still early days to be talking about the Oscars with any concrete idea of how things will turn out. But the trailer alone gives the impression that Whitaker, Daniels, Strong, and Winfrey will all be prime contenders come the awards race later this year, even with a release earlier than the majority of the usual suspects.
The Butler is set to be released on August 16th in the US. Still no word yet on a UK release date, but hopefully we’ll see it cross the Atlantic soon after the summer.
