The film Butter is a slightly odd prospect. It basically takes the 2008 Iowa Democratic Caucus that saw Hilary Clinton in competition with Barack Obama, but turns it into a comedy about the fight between a black orphan and the ambitious wife of the retired reigning champion, to win a small mid-western town's butter-sculpting championship.
Jennifer Garner has long been attached to the script, but things have stepped up a gear with The Weinstein Company putting up funding and shooting due to begin at the end of the month. Some decent names have stepped up to the plate to join the pic, with Variety reporting that Hugh Jackman has signed on to play an old flame of Garner's Hillary Clinton-esque character, while Alicia Silverstone will be the adoptive mother of the teen who becomes a major butter sculpting contender.
Movieline meanwhile says House star Olivia Wilide is playing a tattooed stripper with a Betty Page hairdo, who’s also the mistress to a term-limited butter-carving champion (the Bill Clinton character). The filmmakers were originally courting Kate Hudson for the role, but when she went off to make Something Borrowed, they turned to Wilde. However there's some confusion over who's playing the Bill Clinton-esque part, with some reporting it's gone to Rob Cordrry, while there are also suggestions it'll be Modern Family's Ty Burrell. Twilight's Ashley Greene will also be in the flick as a rebellious teenager.
Butter starts shooting later this month under the director of Jim Field Smith.