Oh thank goodness. After watching Lafayette go from the coolest character in True Blood to one of the most annoying, I'm happy to see actor Nelsan Ellis moving on to do something different. He had a small but key role in The Help last year, and now he's jumping from there into another major civil rights effort, playing Martin Luther King in The Butler.
With so much talent at his disposal, and such an inspiring true story, it makes me wonder if such a lousy director as Lee Daniels is going to be able to pull this off. Forest Whitaker plays Eugene Allen, who served thirtyfour years as a White House butler, watching the civil rights movement evolve under eight Presidential administrations. Oprah Winfrey, David Oyelowo, John Cusack, Alan Rickman, Lenny Kravitz, Minka Kelly, Liam Neeson, Jane Fonda, Robin Williams, Terrence Howard, and so many more will be helping to bring Allen's story to life, along with screenwriter Danny Strong(Game Change).
Ellis will be seen next in Mira Nair's The Reluctant Fundamentalist, which should open at the Venice International Film Festival next month. [Deadline]
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