Lee Daniels' The Butler (Ibid, 2013)

[Professor Wagstaff]

Lee Daniels' The Butler.

[wigwam]

It's gonna be great. He's Almodovar as soul brutha.

[mfunk9786]

FYI, his name is Lee Daniels.

[Professor Wagstaff]

Whoops, misplaced apostrophe. Fixed.

[knives]

Lee Daniels' The Butler.

So I guess Ford and Carter never existed?

[domino harvey]

Finally, a "Let's tiptoe through modern history" ala Forest Gump for black people (or, more likely, those afflicted with white guilt). This looks comically awful and thus deserves a dedicated thread for future derision

[The Narrator Returns]

And some of those casting choices are, um, interesting. Robin Williams as Ike Eisenhower? John Cusack as Richard Nixon?

[knives]

John Cusack is the least of this film's worries.

[flyonthewall2983]

I'd like to just see Alan Rickman as Reagan and no Oprah sex scenes, please.

[knives]

This is a Lee Daniels film so there won't be an Oprah sex scene. Now a rape scene is an entirely different set of conditions.

[Mr Sausage]

The Butler is the heart-warming story of a man who goes from serving rich white people to serving even richer white people.

[bdsweeney]

What's the bet there's a scene where the butler views from a hidden distance an indiscretion between JFK and one of his lovers.

[flyonthewall2983]

One of his lovers=Marilyn Monroe, you're on.

[Kirkinson]

There's no one in the credits list playing Marilyn Monroe, but there is someone playing Barack Obama, so I can pretty much guess the kind of triumphantly weepy denouement we're going to see ("You did it, America! Good for you!" as either the Butler or his son sheds a single happy tear while watching the inauguration on TV). Fun fact: the actor playing Obama has previously been Forest Whitaker's stand-in.

And yeah, this movie has one of the weirdest casts ever.

EDIT: Actually, the real Eugene Allen was invited to and attended Obama's inauguration, so it's a natural place to end the story. I take back half of my snark (I'm sure the scene as played will still be terrible).

[warren oates]

Is it wrong that I really want to watch this now? The trailer alone made me laugh more than most on-purpose comedies.

[Dylan]

What interests me most about this film is that it has a Quincy Jones score. His dramatic scores are always gorgeous, so I look forward to hearing what he came up with for such a weepy-looking film.

[Dylan]

Quincy Jones on his "involvement" (from this May, 2013 interview):

“They’re maniacs,” Q says of the filmmakers, who’ve been bruiting his name about. “I told them, ‘Don’t say it until we understand each other.’ 

I guess the filmmakers better figure this out if the film is sticking to the August release date.

[Professor Wagstaff]

Warner Bros. wins an arbitration for the rights to the title "The Butler".

Warner Bros. rationale regarding the lawsuit.

[Matt]

This is so insane. You can neither trademark nor copyright titles. Leave it to Hollywood to set up a voluntary, binding arbitration process for "rights" that have no legal basis.

I Was a Teenage Butler
The Things I Saw When I Was a White House Butler
Butle-what? Butle-who?

[solaris72]

This is so insane. You can neither trademark nor copyright titles. Leave it to Hollywood to set up a voluntary, binding arbitration process for "rights" that have no legal basis.

Yeah, plus 1916 puts the short comfortably in the public domain!

[FakeBonanza]

This is so insane. You can neither trademark nor copyright titles. Leave it to Hollywood to set up a voluntary, binding arbitration process for "rights" that have no legal basis.

Apparently this is in response to TWC's attempt to prevent Warner from using a title similar (but not identical) to that of one of their films. It's no less absurd, but it serves the Weinsteins right.

[warren oates]

This is so insane. You can neither trademark nor copyright titles. Leave it to Hollywood to set up a voluntary, binding arbitration process for "rights" that have no legal basis.

This isn't about trying to corner the market on naming. It's about the biggest companies in the business injecting some sanity and comity into their bazillion dollar marketing slates. No studio wants to spend 100 million trying to advertise a movie -- to get the public's attention and differentiate their product -- only to have some other company release a similar sounding or identically titled thing a few weeks or months before. That's why it generally makes sense for MPAA signatories to agree to the voluntary title registry for all of their upcoming releases. The whole point of this arbitration system is that these disagreements are usually ones that can be settled by a little common sense horse trading. It should embarrass everyone involved, especially the MPAA, that it's come to this. Both companies in this instance seem to be abusing the system out of pettiness and should be called on it.

You can't copyright titles, but you can trademark ones that are famous enough. Good luck publishing that new volume of experimental poetry entitled Star Wars.

[Brian C]

You can't copyright titles, but you can trademark ones that are famous enough. Good luck publishing that new volume of experimental poetry entitled Star Wars.

"Oh Star Wars,
Nothing but Star Wars,
Give me those Star Wars,
Don't let them end.
Oh Star Wars,
If they should bar wars,
Please let these Star Wars
Stay.
And hey, how 'bout that nutty Star Wars bar,
Can you forget all the creatures in there?
And hey, Darth Vader in his black and evil mask,
Did he scare you as much as he scared me?
Oh Star Wars,
Those near and far wars,
Star Wars!"

-Nick Winters

[lacritfan]

One of these days when I see "Lee Daniels" my first thought won't be "Linklater's DP directed a movie?"
They didn't even try to make Cusack look like Nixon, Alan Rickman as Reagan looks like it might be hoot.
Better poster.

[Finch]

Weinsteins lost