'The Butler': Forest Whitaker may join Oprah Winfrey in Lee Daniels' film

Oprah Winfrey's return to the big screen may come equipped with an Oscar-winning co-star: Forest Whitaker...

Mar 7, 2012

Oprah Winfrey’s return to the big screen may come equipped with an Oscar-winning co-star: Forest Whitaker. According to the Huffington Post, Whitaker is in talks to join Winfrey in Lee Daniels’ upcoming biopic The Butler, which explores the life of Eugene Allen a White House employee who served eight presidents:

Last month, The Hollywood Reporter broke the news that Oprah Winfrey was negotiating to join “The Butler,” director Lee Daniels’s (“Precious”) biopic about Eugene Allen, a White House employee who served eight presidents between 1952 and 1986. The 58-year-old OWN empress would star as Allen’s wife — a great idea until you read further in the THR story and found that 35-year-old David Oyelowo (“Rise of the Planet of the Apes”) was set to star as Allen himself.

About that peculiar age difference: Variety reports that Oscar winner Forest Whitaker is in talks to play Allen; Oyelowo would play Allen’s son. Suddenly, it all makes sense.

No word yet on any official co-stars, but there are plenty of major players lining up for some historical significant roles. THR reported that Mila Kunis and John Cusack were in discussions to play Jackie Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon (!), while Hugh Jackman could play anyone from Dwight D. Eisenhower to John F. Kennedy.

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