Lee Daniels is currently at the Cannes Film Festival promoting his film The Paperboy, which many are calling a glorious mess, but he’s taking time to speak about his next movie. Screen Daily sat down with the director to discuss his next film, The Butler and he let some more details slip regarding the anticipated project. Minka Kelley, of Friday Night Lights fame, has been chosen by the director to play Jackie Onassis to Matthew McConaughey’s JFK. The movie tells the story of Eugene Allen (Forrest Whitaker), a butler who served under eight presidents.
In addition to Kelly, McConaughey and Whitaker, the film also stars Oprah Winfrey as Allen’s wife, John Cusack as Richard Nixon, Alan Rickman as Ronald Reagan, Jane Fonda as Nancy Reagan, with Cuba Gooding Jr, David Oyelowo, Lenny Kravitz and Terrence Howard also on board.
Lee Daniels is set to scout locations on Monday and the shoot will begin on July 16.
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Tags: casting, David Oyelowo, Jane Fonda, Lee Daniels, Matthew McConaughey, Minka Kelly, news, upcoming projects
1 Comment(s)












He certainly won’t be topping Precious by casting Matthew McConaughey as JFK. Is that a joke? Same for Cusack as Nixon. Alan Rickman sounds like a fantastic choice though. Right now it sounds like I’ll see Paperboy before this one. Forrest Witaker is the cherry on this awful sounding sundae, but I’m still curious to see how this one goes.
Steve(Quote) (Reply)