When Lee Daniels signed on to direct The Butler, it was unclear how Wil Haygood’s “Washington Post” article would be converted into cinematic storytelling. There was a lot of room for maneuvering. Although deft and interesting, there are about a dozen different tones that could emerge from the profile of White House butler Eugene Allen — who served eight presidents from Truman to Reagan and is played here by Forest Whitaker. Judging from the trailer, Daniels and screenwriter Danny Strong swung for the fences. It’ll be fascinating to see how they’ve packed so many trenchant, racially-charged years of American history into an intimately human story. Allen was born in 1919 and would live to see Barack Obama elected president. That’s not merely a lot of time to cover; considering the loaded symbolism, the people who sat behind the Resolute desk while Allen was stacking champagne, and his rich personal struggle with the paperwork behind shuffled on Capitol Hill, Daniels and the production have their work cut out for them here. Of course there’s also John Cusack, whose face looks like its about to explode playing Richard Nixon. Check out the trailer for yourself:

In the latest addition of Release Date Round-Up, just about every single film that needed a release date gets dated, or at least this giant installment of everyone’s favorite release date feature (sure) makes it seem that way. We’ve got dates for every kind of film under the sun (vampires! true life trauma! comic book movies! historical dramas!), including a hefty number of totally new dates (and a smidgen of some simple change-ups) for many of the films. What we’re saying is, there is a lot of stuff here, so better pull out your day planners and get cracking on configuring your movie-watching for the rest of the year. After the break, find out when you can see David O. Russell‘s untitled reunion with his Silver Linings Playbook stars, Christopher Nolan‘s next, and seemingly everything else in between. Your wallet is about to take a big hit.

After the critical and commercial success of Precious, director Lee Daniels most likely had offers flooding into his office. Considering the way he describes the post-Precious period, that was indeed the case. There were plenty of movies Daniels could have made and for large sums of money as well. In the end, Daniels decided to followup Precious with The Paperboy, a movie many have called “pulpy.” Pulpy material usually doesn’t equal commercial success, but after making a hit, Daniels decided to stick with his gut even if his gut told him to turn down millions. The Paperboy, as ludicrous as it certainly is at times, remains a personal story for Daniels. Some may not see through the sweat and violence of the picture, but he saw this as another tale filled with people he knows well and who we don’t see on screen often enough: characters with a death wish. The world those characters inhabits is one you’ll either love or hate. Here’s what director Lee Daniels had to say about his artist side superseding commercialism, when the magic happens on set, and why he really shows Zac Efron in his underwear so much:

Lee Daniels is currently waist-deep in White House history, exploring the most visible citizen’s home office through the eyes of The Butler – a forthcoming adaptation of a Wil Haygood newspaper article chronicling a butler (played by Forest Whitaker) who served under 8 presidents. Daniels is taking advantage of the huge swath of famous political faces by having a huge supporting cast to play them. One of the less-famous faces is being played by Oprah Winfrey (who is surprisingly not one of the 30 some odd producers), and she tweeted out (via Cinema Blend) this first look at Jane Fonda as Nancy Reagan and Alan Rickman (!) as Ronald Reagan. Once again we get to marvel at the make-up, hair and costuming of a historical flick. The team has done a great job of making both look as close as possible (to the point where Rickman is virtually unrecognizable as himself). Plus, the actor raised taxes 11 times in preparation for the role, so everyone’s dedication levels are high for this one.

What is Movie News After Dark? It’s a nightly column about movies that may or may not be skimming the good stuff off the top of tonight’s news sundae because it needs to go get caught up on Breaking Bad. Don’t worry, there’s still plenty happening… We begin this evening with an image of Forest Whitaker as Eugene Allen in The Butler. The Lee Daniels directed film focuses on the long-time White House servant and will also star the likes of Oprah Winfrey, Robin Williams, John Cusack and Alan Rickman.

Make no mistake, we love us some Matthew McConaughey around these parts, but his unique brand of show-stopping performance is perhaps not so well-suited for historical dramas with large casts of characters, particularly ones that might not have the strongest of directing talent to steer them. Films like Lee Daniels‘ upcoming The Butler, set to chronicle the life story of Eugene Allen, who served as a White House butler under an incredible eight presidents and through the years 1952 to 1986. To that end, Variety reports (via The Playlist) that James Marsden has joined the film as JFK. McConaughey had been attached to the role for only two months, but dropped out of the project just last month due to scheduling conflicts with the long-gestating The Dallas Buyer’s Club. Of course, we must also wonder if those “conflicts” have anything to do with Daniels and McConaughey’s last project, Cannes giggle factory (and home of Nicole Kidman demanding to pee on Zac Efron), The Paperboy.

“Yes, the same Jane Fonda who has been described as a communist, was part of the “F” the Army too and is an enemy sympathizer.” “Perhaps Fonda will be perfect at mangling history on film, since she’s certainly done that in real life.” “Of all people Hollywood could haven chosen to portray Nancy Reagan in a new film, they come up with Jane Fonda. It’s like they’re trying to offend half of America before the movie is even made. ” “Arch-liberals Fonda and [John] Cusack playing a pair of major figures on the Right? Conservatives should stock up on antacids starting … now.” That’s Townhall.com, News Busters, The Lonely Conservative and Breitbart.com in response to the Variety story that writer/director Lee Daniels (Precious) has hired Jane Fonda to play Nancy Reagan for his new movie The Butler, which follow the story of Eugene Allen, a White House butler who served under eight, count ‘em, eight presidents during his career.

Last night, my Twitter feed coughed out a story from THR, an exclusive report about casting rumors for Lee Daniels‘ (Precious) potential next project, The Butler. At the time, I was too stunned (and too busy laughing hysterically) by how completely wrongheaded a few of the potential stars seemed to be for their respective roles to pen something on the subject. I’ve yet to fully recover, but my typing hands are itchy. The Butler is the true life story of Eugene Allen, a White House butler who worked under eight presidents, spanning the years of 1952 to 1986. Danny Strong wrote the script (with a re-write from Daniels), based on Wil Haygood‘s 2008 Washington Post story “A Butler Well Served by This Election.” You can read the full story HERE, which is a wonderful tale not just about Allen, but about life (and race) in the White House (and America). The story also paid particular focus to the election of Barack Obama – it was published on November 7, 2008, just days after he was elected – and days after Allen himself cast his vote for the first African-American president. But while the story behind The Butler is phenomenal, and Daniels’ apparent first choice to play Allen (David Oyelowo) is pretty great, the rest of the rumored casting for the film is a big bag of “wait, what?”