Quincy Jones Scoring Lee Daniels' 'The Butler'; Mariah Carey & Yaya DaCosta Join The Film

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by Kevin Jagernauth
July 26, 2012 9:42 AM
5 Comments

It has been about two months since Lee Daniels stopped in Cannes with "The Paperboy" and was roundly savaged by critics, but the director has already dusted himself off and moved on, with principal photography beginning this week on the sprawling historical drama "The Butler." And a few more details have dropped now that the cameras are rolling on Daniels' new film.

First up, legendary musician, composer and producer Quincy Jones has been lined up to score the film. Though he worked in film regularly throughout the '60s and '70s, providing memorable work for pictures like "The Italian Job," "The Hot Rock," "The Getaway," "In The Heat Of The Night" and "The Anderson Tapes," since then he has largely stepped out of movie scoring, notably pitching in for Steven Spielberg's "The Color Purple" and less notably for Jim Sheridan's "Get Rich Or Die Tryin." But we're definitely curious to see what he'll do here, and it's a pretty great coup for Daniels.

Meanwhile, joining the already massive ensemble will be pop singer Mariah Carey and actress Yaya DaCosta, who is probably best known for being Mark Ruffalo's impossibly gorgeous hook up in "The Kids Are All Right." There's no word yet on their roles, but we will say this: as much as we rag on Daniels for not being an actor's director, he pulled a pretty solid performance out of Carey for "Precious," and overall, he's working with strong talent here so hopefully he'll let them do their thing.

To recap: the film will tell the true tale of Eugene Allen, the late White House butler who served eight presidents during his tenure from 1952 to 1986. Forest Whitaker, David Oyelowo, Oprah Winfrey,Cuba Gooding Jr., Terrence Howard, Lenny Kravitz, Alan Rickman, Jane Fonda, John Cusack, Robin Williams, Liam Neeson, Minka Kelly, Alex Pettyfer, Colman Dingo, Vanessa Redgrave, James Marsden, Liev Schreiber and more feature. No release date yet, but will Daniels take another shot at Cannes next year? We'll see. [Variety/Black Film]

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More: Quincy Jones, Mariah Carey, Yaya DaCosta, The Butler

5 Comments

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cyberwednesday | July 30, 2012 5:41 PMReply

For a real black film that's not about driving miss daisy's, butlers, helps, beasts or precious burdens, google CYBORNETICS.
Pete | July 28, 2012 9:35 PMReply

I'm glad Mariah Carey is doing another movie. She was supposed to star in For Colored Girls in a juicy role that would have solidified her acting career but she was replaced by Thandie Newton. I hope that she has a decent amount of screen time. However, knowing how hectic the American Idol schedule can be, it might be a very small role.
tamara | July 27, 2012 2:07 AMReply

Lenny Kravitz is also involved in the movie.
Dan | July 26, 2012 1:33 PMReply

Melissa Leo joined the cast as Mamie Eisenhower. It was mentioned in the Deadline piece about Schreiber joining
ME | July 26, 2012 11:45 AMReply

Liam Neeson's out of this movie, he'd to drop out because of schedule conflicts. Liev Schreiber's replacing him.