<P> Danny Strong's screenplay is inspired by Wil Haygood's Washington Post article "A Butler Well Served by This Election". The project received initial backing in early 2011, when producers Laura Ziskin and Pam Williams approached Sheila Johnson for help in financing the film . After reading Danny Strong's screenplay, Johnson pitched in her own $2.7 million before getting in several African - American investors . However, Ziskin died from cancer in June 2011 . This left director Daniels and producing partner Hilary Shor to look for further producers on their own . They started with Cassian Elwes, with whom they were working on The Paperboy . Elwes joined the list of producers, and started raising funding for the film . In spring 2012, Icon U.K., a British financing and production company, added a $6 million guarantee against foreign pre-sales . Finally the film raised its needed $30 million budget through 41 producers and executive producers, including Earl W. Stafford, Harry I. Martin Jr., Brett Johnson, Michael Finley, and Buddy Patrick . Thereafter, as film production started Weinstein Co. picked up U.S. distribution rights for the film . David Glasser, Weinstein Co . COO, called fund raising as an independent film, "a story that's a movie within itself ." </P> <P> The Weinstein Company acquired the distribution rights for the film after Columbia Pictures put the film in turnaround . </P> <P> The film's title was up for a possible rename due to a Motion Picture Association of America claim from Warner Bros., which had inherited from the defunct Lubin Company a now - lost 1916 silent short film with the same name . The case was subsequently resolved with the MPAA granting The Weinstein Company permission to add Daniels' name in front of the title, under the condition that his name was "75% the size of The Butler". On July 23, 2013, the distributor unveiled a revised poster, displaying the title as Lee Daniels' The Butler . </P> <P> Principal photography started in June 2012 in New Orleans . Production was originally scheduled to wrap in early August 2012 but was delayed by the impact of Hurricane Isaac . </P>

When did the movie the butler take place