Variety reports that Forest Whitaker is in talks to play the title role in The Butler, Precious director Lee Daniels' upcoming biopic about Eugene Allen, a legendary White House butler who served under eight different presidents. The Last King of Scotland Oscar winner replaces Denzel Washington, who had been slated to star when the project was in development at Sony.

The Butler is currently without a distributor or financing, but producers are reportedly in talks with an actress whose name alone could change all that in an instant: Oprah Winfrey, Variety reports, is currently mulling an offer to star alongside Whitaker as Allen's wife. It would be the former talk-show host's first live-action big screen role since Beloved, Jonathan Demme's 1998 adaptation of Toni Morrison's acclaimed novel.

The project made headlines last week with the announcement that Black Swan star Mila Kunis had signed on to play Jackie Kennedy.

凭借《珍爱》一举成名的导演李·丹尼尔斯，正在筹备拍摄一部名为《管家》（The Butler）的新片，奥斯卡影帝福里斯特·惠特克有望领衔主演。

影片灵感源自于华盛顿邮报上的一篇文章，改编自真人真事。主人公Eugene Allen是一位黑人，1952年他应聘食品管理员而走进白宫工作。在他任职的34年间，美国总统轮换了八位，而Eugene最终也成为了白宫里人人尊敬的首席管家。

与斯皮尔伯格正在热拍中的《林肯》一样，李·丹尼尔斯也希望能找来一些人气演员加盟，饰演历史名人，包括大卫·奥伊罗、约翰·库萨克、米拉·库妮丝、休·杰克曼等人都已受到邀请。

《管家》预计在今年夏天开始制作拍摄。