'Butter' to melt in Jennifer Garner's mouth

According to The Hollywood Reporter Mandate has optioned Jason Micallef's political satire 'Butter' with Jennifer Garner set to star and possibly prodcue with Michael De Luca. Craig Gillespie and Gary Ross are two directors said to be eyeing the project.

"Butter" follows a young black orphan who, after being adopted by a Midwestern family, discovers she has an uncanny talent for butter-carving. She eventually finds herself up against the ambitious wife of the retired reigning champion in a town's annual butter-sculpting contest.

"I wanted to do a political satire," Micallef said, "and I was looking for some venue that people take very seriously but is also ridiculous -- like politics -- but at the same time is really visual."

So the writer, who hails from Gloucester County, Va., flashed back to a fuzzy post-college road trip through a scorching August that resulted in a five-hour detour to the refrigerated building of the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, which housed competitors' prized butter sculptures.

I like Jen Garner a lot but at first glance this seemed a dull choice from her after her latest  rom com, however reading more into it and hearing that it was #3 on the 2008 Black List (a listing of the best unproduced screenplays of that year), My interest is peaked and since Garner will be playing the ambitious wife of the former champion, she will in essence be the films anatagonist, which will be an interesting change of pace for the Hollywood sweetheart.