HOME TRAILERS 2013 SCHEDULE PODCASTS REVIEWS POSTERS INTERVIEWS SHORT FILMS NEWS FEEDS ABOUT APPS

LATEST NEWS

Robin Williams is Dwight D. Eisenhower in Lee Daniels' 'The Butler'

by Ethan Anderton
July 18, 2012

If you thought the ensemble cast of The Butler from director Lee Daniels (Precious) was already impressive with Forest Whitaker, James Marsden, John Cusack, Jane Fonda, Melissa Leo, Alan Rickman, Alex Pettyfer and Oprah Winfrey and many more, well it just got a bit better. A press release sent our way reveals that Robin Williams will play President Dwight D. Eisenhower in the film based on the life of Eugene Allen, a White House servant who worked for eight First Families over three decades. Whitaker is playing the lead, and most of the big names will have small supporting roles throughout the butler's career.

The article on which the film is based, from Wil Haygood at the Washington Post, follows Allen's work from starting at the White House as a "pantry man" in 1952, when blacks weren't allowed to use public restrooms in his native Virginia all the way through various historical events like the Vietnam War, the civil rights movement, the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr., John F. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy, and finally the election of President Barack Obama. It should be quite an interesting drama that seems along the lines of Forrest Gump, but just in a central location, so that sounds good to me.

Filed under Casting, Movie News

From around the web:

LosZombies

Love Robin Williams, but, for some reason I just cant quite picture him as Eisenhower. Would still like to see this though
- grimjob
  
  Yeah, that's some odd casting, but, the man can act. Should be a good one.
DAVIDPD

I enjoyed his Theodore Roosevelt impression in A NIGHT IN THE MUSEUM.
j. u.

Mr. Williams' myriad of talents as an actor are increasingly, enjoyably uncovered!