The central character in the comedy “Butter” – played by Garner – is a conservative woman fighting to win a butter sculpting competition in Iowa who’s said to be loosely based on Rep. Michele Bachmann.

Since Bachmann has dropped her presidential bid, the comparison won’t be as buzzy when the movie comes out in March.

Though Garner has called her character’s similarity to Bachmann “serendipitous,” executive producer Harvey Weinstein emphasized the connection a few months ago by sarcastically inviting the then-presidential candidate to the movie’s Iowa premiere.

Source: http://www.politico.com/

EW caught up with Reitman after the show, and he said that choosing the 80?s classic for this new experiment was a no-brainer. ”The Breakfast Club was just a perfect fit,” he said. ”I needed a film that was in a contained location with not too many characters, that was funny, that was populous, that had a great script that the audience would have a relationship with…it just hit the nail.”

If the audience’s frequent laughter is any indicator, then Reitman is absolutely right. Consider that nail hit. Many of the laughs came from Hughes’ already fantastic dialogue, which translates very well to stage, but the audience definitely reacted to the forgotten 80?s lingo that runs rampant in the film. It was very surreal seeing the dude from Dawson’s Creek threaten to ‘total’ a guy, and then a few minutes later Jesse Pinkman used “eat my shorts” as an actual, non-ironic insult. Remember when Bart Simpson was a controversial cartoon character? Crazy.

The entire cast did a great job. Most of them stayed true to the original characters, but Kaling’s natural valley girl voice put a slightly different spin on the vodka-loving Allison. If you didn’t read any press coverage before the event, you never would have known that the actors didn’t rehearse. “They just showed up 30 minutes before and started reading,” Reitman said. “Aaron Paul in particular really took the lead and decided he was going to full-on act it out, and everyone went with it.”

GALLERY LINK:
- Movies Butter > Promotional Photos

For more info, check out www.austinfilmfestival.com.

Source: http://www.austinchronicle.com/

The film is set in the Midwest U.S., where an adopted girl (Yara Shahidi) discovers her talent for butter carving and finds herself pitted against an ambitious local woman (Garner) in their town’s annual contest. Hugh Jackman, Alicia Silverstone, Ty Burrell, Ashley Greene and Olivia Wilde also star.

OFFICIAL SITE

Source: http://www.comingsoon.net/

We ran a piece here about the statement that Harvey Weinstein sent along to be ready before the public premiere of “Butter” at the Toronto Film Festival last week, and while it drew some big laughs in the room and got some play in the press, I felt like it was yet another set of battle lines being drawn. And while there are many things I like about the film, which is definitely worth seeing, there’s a chance that its merits will be ignored in the conversation over the easy targets that the movie singles out, especially in the climate as we’re gearing up towards the 2012 election season.

“Butter” was a Black List script a few years ago, acclaimed by many, and Jason A. Micallef certainly has an ear for comic dialogue and broad character. Set against the cutthroat world of Iowa butter carving competitions, it tells the story of Laura Pickler (Jennifer Garner), the wife of Bob Pickler (Ty Burrell), who has held the title of State Champion for fifteen years in a row. Laura has shrewdly used Bob’s success to build an empire for herself of self-serving glory, and when Bob is told by the official committee of the contest that they want him to step aside and let someone else have a shot at the title, she goes, to put it politely, f**king apes**t.

At the same time, several other contestants step forward with their own reasons to want to win. Kristen Schaal plays the leader of Bob’s fan club who wants to emulate her hero. Olivia Wilde plays a local stripper who has very personal reasons to want revenge against Laura. And then there’s Destiny, a young black girl played by Yara Shahidi, who has spent her life shuttled from home to home in the foster care system, leading her to conclude that white people are crazy. From the first moment she sees butter carving, she’s drawn to it, and there’s a lovely moment early on where she meets Bob and he recognizes a genuine artist in her. Her new foster parents, Jill (Alicia Silverston) and Ethan (Rob Corddry), are determined to give Destiny a real home for the first time in her young life, and they support her in her decision to go head-to-head with Laura, who is determined to keep the title in the family by becoming the new champion herself.

What’s going to be interesting is watching how people overreact immediately to what they see as the political symbolism in the film. I have no doubt that the right wing will believe this to be a direct attack on them, as will the Tea Party, which I see as occupying a wing all their own these days. However, if you want to read this strictly based on what’s onscreen, it looks more like a reaction the Hillary Clinton/Barack Obama race than anything else. A woman’s husband reaches the end of his eligibility for a race, so she decides to run herself, and then suddenly sees her chances hindered when a younger minority candidate shows up who is a natural in front of a crowd. Sound familiar? So if this uses a Democratic primary as initial source material, how can this be read as an attack on the right?

Because these days, everyone feels like they’re being attacked all the time, and that’s the problem. That’s when conversation ends. “Butter” is about the way power and influence can twist someone, and the way competition can bring out the best in others, and no matter where the idea started, those are universal ideas. What I wish is that the film wasn’t quite as specific in its metaphor as it is, because I think there is some real juice in the way the cast attacks the material, and director Jim Field Smith has a nice light pop cartoon touch. It’s an enjoyable sit, and there are many scenes that are fall-down funny. Olivia Wilde does some of the most outrageous work of her career here, and again, there’s a real-world parallel when her real name is revealed as Brooke that may earn some cheap laughs, but which would work better without the shot. Between this and “God Bless America,” I’m guessing Diablo Cody’s going to have a number of uncomfortable moments in movie theaters in the near future.

I would say that if you can look past the surface comparisons to real life, “Butter” works best as pure comedy. Ashley Greene, playing Laura’s step-daughter, has some very funny scenes, many of them involving Wilde, while Rob Corddry reveals a warm side that we haven’t seen from him often on film. Kristen Schaal, who seriously seems to have arrived here from another planet, brings her own lovely loopy sensibility to her role, and Hugh Jackman plays perhaps the most ridiculous character of his career, to good effect. Garner is the star of the film, though, as well as one of the producers, and I can see why she wanted to make it. I’ve interviewed Garner many times, and visited several sets to watch her work, and as far as I can tell, she’s exactly what you think she is. Preposterously sweet and very professional, and I’m sure she is aware that the only way to expand your range is to play against type. Laura Pickler is a smiling monster in the film, and Garner attacks the role with real zeal. She’s balanced by the natural charm and grace of Shahidi, who is very good as Destiny. The wee bit of real heart in the film comes mainly from the way Shahidi plays with Corddry and Silverstone as her new foster parents, and the sweetness of their material definitely takes some of the sting out of the rest of the film.

Do I think “Butter” lands every punch it throws? No, not really. I think it’s an entertaining film, but I don’t think it offers up any particular insight into the way power works or where we are at the moment. I’m glad I saw it, and the screening at the Roy Thompson Hall where I saw it was particularly giddy thanks to the presence of the cast and the charged atmosphere in the room. “Butter” will definitely connect with audiences, but the question remains, will people be able to see past what they see as a personal attack in order to make it to the universal laughs? Time will tell.

The film will have a limited run in LA this fall before a real release in the spring of 2012.

Source: http://www.hitfix.com/

Jennifer Garner’s voice over prepares us for what is to come in the film’s opening moments saying this is a story of “greed, black mail, sex and butter.” However, this film presents the strangest way of devising a political satire I can think of as we’re introduced to the little-known world of butter carving through Bob Pickler (Ty Burrell) and his ambitious wife Laura (Garner).

Bob is a successful butter carver, winning at the Iowa State Fair several years running with such winning sculptures as scenes from Schindler’s List, the Passion of the Christ featuring Neil Diamond and most recently, The Last Supper. He’s known as “the Elvis of butter” but he feels it’s finally time to step down and let a new king be crowned. This, however, doesn’t sit well with his wife who has found joy in the spotlight and refuses to let the Pickler name no longer be represented in the world of butter carving. So, she decides to enter this year’s competition herself, but she’s not alone.

Laura’s main competition comes in the form of the aptly named Destiny (Yara Shahidi), a ten-year-old African American orphan that has been passed around from one weird white family to the next and she’s resigned to believe “white people are crazy.” But now she seems to have finally found a happy home with the Emmets (Alicia Silverstone and Rob Corddry). When asked what she’s good at she tells them “nothing,” but it’s soon revealed she has a talent for the arts and a joy for butter sculpting and thus she enters the competition opposite Laura Pickler and the dual is on.

Other characters that enter the fray include a bike-riding stripper named “Tokyo Rose” played to perfection by Olivia Wilde, a rootin’ tootin’ car salesman named Boyd Bolton played by Hugh Jackman and the Pickler’s daughter Kaitlen played by Ashley Greene. I really wish I could tell you more, but that would only ruin the surprise. The metaphors each character represents had me rolling, even during the film’s quieter moments, as I searched for meaning in even the slightest gestures.

Butter is an effective examination of how silly politics have become in our country. It holds nothing back, everyone is game and it’s all the better for it. The hard part is figuring out how many people paid close enough attention to the 2008 election to get the majority of the jokes here. I also think people will confuse this as being a commentary on the Republican party as Garner does come off a little like Sarah Palin early on and dresses a lot like Michelle Bachman throughout. That confusion may ultimately confuse the film’s ultimate outcome, but hopefully anyone that’s read this will be prepared.

Butter has a lot of laughs for anyone that enjoys a healthy dose of political satire. There may be some enjoyment for people that don’t choose to look beneath the surface, but I’m not sure the laughs will be consistent for anyone that isn’t paying attention to the political parallels, which should likely prove to make this a tough sell to general audiences.

Source: http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/

The Weinstein Co. decided to slip their new comedy into Telluride ahead of its premiere at Toronto, and Garner, co-star Ty Burrell, producer Michael De Luca and director Jim Field Smith attended the first public screening Saturday night at the packed Galaxy Theatre. Smith introduced the film with a witty recounting of his efforts to get the film finished in time and the various flights it took to get here earlier today (with the film reels in his carry-on bag).

Garner noted that Butter was the first film produced by her production company Vandalia Films, which she runs with partner Juliana Janes, after 10 years in action. Since Saturday was the first-ever showing of the film to “real people” she joked, “we could all just die.”

The film is an often edgy comedy masquerading as a political satire about the skullduggery and shenanigans surrounding a butter-carving contest in Iowa, which Garner’s character Laura Pickler proudly brags is “where all the great battles begin.” (It would have been interesting to watch George Clooney’s The Ides of March in a double bill.) The film has plenty of laughs and a slew of great supporting turns, particularly Rob Corrdry as a warm-hearted foster parent and Olivia Wilde as a stripper turned vindictive butter booster. Hugh Jackman shows up in what amounts to a cameo in just a few scenes, including a spoken prayer to God that had the audience howling.

Throughout, there are references to “the liberal media” and America being “No. 1,” as Garner purses her lips and bullies her way through foe and family alike with the hybrid zeal of To Die For’s Suzanne Stone crossed with Michelle Bachmann. (In a funny bit of timing, Sarah Palin was busy bleating to her sheep in Iowa earlier today.) There is so much riding on her winning that it’s frightening. You can tell the filmmakers had Election in mind when they put this together. The satire sometimes loses traction, and the competing voice-overs begin to seem random and pointless, but the narrative is clear enough and the laughs well-earned.

Along the way, we get to see and hear about some fabulous butter sculptures, including a reproduction of The Last Supper, Schindler’s List, Laura Bush, Iwo Jima and Passion of the Christ with Neil Diamond as Jesus. Plus, Smith stuck a funny collection of outtakes at the end that underline that how ridiculous it all is — family, competition, butter, politics, life.

Source: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/

In July, Sam Rockwell signed on to play a meek, small-town pharmacist stuck in a loveless marriage who rediscovers himself by starting an affair with a trophy wife, who will now be played by his “Cowboys” co-star Wilde.

After she introduces him to the pleasures of prescription drugs, things spin out of control when they begin plotting to kill her husband.

Michelle Monaghan is set to co-star as Rockwell’s wife, while Judi Dench is expected to serve as the film’s narrator.

Geoff Moore and David Posamentier, whose script appeared on the most recent Black List, will make their directorial debut.

Occupant’s Joe Neurauter, Felipe Marino and Keith Calder are producing “Chemistry,” for which ICM is handling North American rights. Ealing Metro is handling international sales for the pic, which is slated to start production this fall in Maryland.

Wilde also recently starred in David Dobkin’s “The Change Up.” She’ll soon be seen alongside Garner in The Weinstein Company’s “Butter,” which will debut at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Wilde has an additional quartet of films on the horizon, including Andrew Niccol’s “In Time” and Alex Kurtzman’s “Welcome to People.” Thesp recently exec produced the short documentary “Sun City Picture House,” which follows a Haitian community struggling to rebuild after the devastating 2010 earthquake. Pic won the Maui Film Festival’s audience award.

Wilde is repped by WME and Untitled Entertainment.

Source: http://www.variety.com/