Screen Daily is reporting Brad Pitt will join the cast of Steve McQueen‘s next film Twelve Years a Slave pitting him alongside Chiwetel Ejiofor and Michael Fassbender in a film based on the 1853 autobiography written by Solomon Northup, a New York citizen who was kidnapped in Washington in 1841 and rescued from a cotton plantation in Louisiana in 1853.
Northup regained his freedom after Samuel Bass, a Canadian carpenter who opposed slavery, smuggled letters to Northup’s wife, Anne Hampton, ultimately starting the legal process to earn him back his freedom.
Ejiofor will play the role of Northrup while I would presume Fassbender will take on the role of Bass though that is unconfirmed. It is also unconfirmed which role Pitt will play, though speculation would lead me to believe he will play one of the slave owners.
The screenplay was adapted by McQueen and John Ridley (Three Kings) and Pitt’s Plan B production house is aboard to also produce alongside River Road Entertainment. The film does not yet have a distributor, but with McQueen’s track record beginning with Hunger and the upcoming release of Shame, which also stars Fassbender, I imagine Summit International won’t have a very hard time finding a buyer at the American Film Market next month.
Shame will hit theaters on December 2.
