The Butler, Lee Daniels’ star-studded film based on the life of White House service worker Eugene Allen, can keeps its title, according to a final ruling from the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).
The Weinstein Company, which produced the film, had been embroiled in a very public dispute with Warner Brothers over the rights to the movie’s title, which was once used by a 1916 comedy that studio released.
According the MPAA, the Weinsteins have to pay a $400,000 fine. The movie, which stars Forest Whitaker and Oprah Winfrey, will be released on August 16th.
“We are thrilled this has all come to an end and has been resolved. The MPAA’s overturning of their original decision to not allow the use of ‘butler’ in the title is a victory for Lee Daniels, the film’s 28 investors who believed in it, America’s greatest attorney David Boies, and especially in the memory of my friend and the film’s producer Laura Ziskin. Now we can focus on the importance of Lee Daniels’ film, the amazing performances by Forest, Oprah and the incredible cast who spent countless months bringing this story about American history and civil rights to screen,” Harvey Weinstein, TWC Co-Chairman told theGrio in a statement.
When the battle over The Butler‘s title broke in the news, several prominent civil rights leaders including NAACP president Ben Jealous, CORE leader Roy Innis and the Reverend Jesse Jackson got personally involved to stop Warner Bros. from potentially preventing the film’s release.
Jackson, Jealous and Innis released a joint statement on the 19th, saying: “We are all watching and waiting for the results of today’s arbitration and hoping that Warner Bros and the MPAA make the right decision on this important movie about civil rights.”
The pressure from these activists may have turned the tide in the favor of Daniels’ film.