There's a trailer been released for The Butler, the Lee Daniels directed film that focuses on the Presidential head butler who served no less than eight different Presidents, a man who had, and forgive me the pun, unprecedented access to the President of the United States of America.

The film follows the life of Eugene Allen, an African-American living through a time of massive racial change in America and the insights his unique position gave him.

This is a great story even in the short blurb, the very fact that the man stayed in his position through eight different Presidents means that the story could deliver some fascinating insights into, not just the Presidents themselves, but also the changing racial issues of the time.

There's some fascinating casting in The Butler with Robin Williams playing Dwight Eisenhower; John Cusack playing Richard Nixon; James Marsden as John F. Kennedy; Liev Schreiber as Lyndon B. Johnson; Alan Rickman as Ronald Reagan, and Jane Fonda playing Nancy Reagan; Melissa Leo as Mamie Eisenhower, and Minka Kelly as Jackie Kennedy.

Add to that list names like Forest Whitaker, Vanessa Redgrave, David Oyelowo, Terrence Howard, Cuba Gooding Jr., Oprah Winfrey, Lenny Kravitz and even Mariah Carey, and the cast list is rather amazing.

Eugene Allen, played by Forest Whitaker, served Presidents of the United States of America from 1952-1986, and The Butler is to tell his story. The film was written by Danny Strong and Lee Daniels who also directed based on an article by Wil Haygood in The Washington Post.

Here is the trailer for The Butler which is over at and comes through Deadline. It's a pretty amazing one for the list of talent involved.