Sony/Columbia Pictures has hired Danny Strong (TV's "Recount") to pen the script for "The Butler," a film based on the true story of Eugene Allen. The Hollywood Reporter reports that the studio has tapped Laura Ziskin to produce the picture. The film is based on the article "A Butler Well Served by This Election," which was written by Wil Haygood for the Washington Post.

Allen was an African-American butler in the White House and according to the trade, started "as a 'pantry man' in 1952 when blacks weren't allowed to use public restrooms in his native Virginia. He ended up serving eight presidents and had a unique front row seat as political and racial history was being made, from the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement to the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. , President John F. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy Jr."

The story was published on November 7, just days before the historic election of Barack Obama. Allen and his wife of 65 years had talked and dreamed of a black man being president. But on Election Day, Allen cast his vote alone; his wife died the day before.