The generic nature of this just released trailer for The Butler doesn’t exactly get me thinking it’s going to be much, if any, kind of an Oscar contender. The film is from Precious helmer Lee Daniels and stars Forest Whitaker as Eugene Allen, the White House butler whose career started with Harry Truman in 1952 and ended in 1986 with Ronald Reagan. The film is based on a Washington Post report by Wil Haygood and is currently shooting in New Orleans.
Big music and an emphasis on the number of cameos seems to be the larger focus and it’s a fleet of names beginning with Oprah Winfrey as Gloria Gaines, David Oyelowo as Louis Gaines, Alan Rickman as Ronald Reagan, Jane Fonda as Nancy Reagan, James Marsden as John F. Kennedy, John Cusack as Richard Nixon, Minka Kelly as Jackie Kennedy, Cuba Gooding Jr. as Carter Wilson, Nelsan Ellis as Martin Luther King Jr., Liev Schreiber as Lyndon B. Johnson, Melissa Leo as Mamie Eisenhower and Robin Williams as Dwight Eisenhower. Other make up the cast, but that should get you started as I believe all of them are seen in this first trailer.
In all honesty, the way the Weinstein Co. decided to drop this late on a Tuesday night with zero fanfare tells me they have little to no confidence in it and I’m definitely going to drop any and all contenders I currently have listed in my Oscar predictions tomorrow and post a pre-Cannes update.
Check it out for yourself below and let me know what you think.
