Kate Hudson Joining Jennifer Garner And Maybe Jim Carrey In Butter
British sketch comedian and lauded short film director Jim Field Smith has just seen his debut feature She's Out of My League open to a respectable $9 million or so. Meanwhile, he's already at work on his follow up, the Black List approved Butter.
It might be a spoiler – though also, very possibly not – to reveal that Butter is structured as some kind of parallel to the 2008 Iowa Democratic Caucus that saw Hilary Clinton in competition with Barack Obama. For a good while now, Jennifer Garner has been signed on to play the Hilary role; today, news has started to break about who will be playing the Bill Clinton and, I suppose, Monica Lewinsky roles (obviously, this allegory plays fast and loose with strict chronology).
Rumoured for a turn as the Bill analogue is Jim Carrey with Kate Hudson in the frame for the role of his mistress. How flattering.
Unfortunately, it's not too definite who's onboard and who isn't because competing reports tell us either that Carrey and Hudson are in current negotiations to take the roles (see Vulture) or that Carrey has already passed and Hudson is "sitting on the script" (see Movieline). Meanwhile, Production Weekly have tweeted that the actors "may join the cast". More usefully, perhaps, they do say with some certainty that the film will start shooting on April 17th in Shreveport, Louisiana.
The most interesting casting conundrum might be that of the Obama figure. In the script she's a 12 year old black girl living in foster care. The producers were reportedly sizing up Will Smith's daughter Willow but her name is absent from this latest merry go round of rumour.
Man, I have some serious doubts about how this film is going to work as political allegory. Hopefully it just surfs by with plain political satire or, heck, common or garden laffs and drama.
Jason Micallef's script for Butter placed at Number 3 on the Black List for 2008. Meanwhile, Jim Field Smith also has the Brit List topping Good Luck Anthony Belcher in his pending file. That's an enviable position, so those of you who've seen She's Out of My League, tell me – does he look like he's going to make the most of these opportunities?