Let's face it, The Butler is an extremely boring title. Nobody's sitting around saying "The Butler? Wow that sounds absolutely amazing! What's it about?" So it's kind of funny that Warner Bros. and The Weinstein Company are now in a dispute over title rights, and it may be that Lee Daniels may need to come up with something new for his upcoming civil rights drama.
A story emerging from Deadline has Warner Bros. causing a fuss because they have the rights to a 1916 silent film also titled The Butler, and now they're blocking Weinstein from releasing Daniels' film by the name. Presumably, they think people will go to their multiplex looking to watch a century-old film non-talkie and will be disappointed to discover they've paid for a historical drama with an A-list celebrity cast. Because obviously.
It smacks of sheer pettiness on WB's part, especially in light of TWC's willingness to let them use the title The Good Lie a few years ago, which TWC initially claimed was too similar to their film The Good Life. WB says now that it's TWC's fault for not trying to resolve this issue sooner, but it's still a total jack move to wait until The Butler is a month away from release to lodge this complaint. We've already seen plenty of trailers and more than a few posters, and trying to change course on the marketing this late in the game would be a killer. And maybe that's what WB is aiming for, derailing one of TWC's strongest Oscar contenders before it's even out of the gate. TWC has used the name of late producer Laura Ziskin to try and plead for an easy resolution, but WB seems to be sticking to their guns.
This should all be resolved through arbitration soon, but until then some new photos from the film have now been released, giving us a better look at Forest Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey, Lenny Kravitz, David Oyelowo, and Cuba Gooding Jr. The Butler...or whatever it will be called, is set to open on August 16th, but even that may be changing before too long.
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