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06-02-12, 03:12 PM
via Variety:
Benedict Cumberbatch, star of PBS skein "Sherlock," is set to join the cast of New Regency's "12 Years a Slave."
Steve McQueen is directing the pic starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender and Brad Pitt.
Based on Solomon Northrup's 1853 nonfiction tome, New Regency pic stars Ejiofor as the author, a free man kidnapped and sold into slavery. Cumberbatch will play a plantation owner who buys Ejiofor's character and is won over by his engineering skills.
McQueen co-wrote the script with John Ridley ("Red Tails"). Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner will produce for Plan B.
In 1841, while working in Saratoga Springs, New York, Solomon met two white men named Merrill Brown and Abram Hamilton. The men overheard Solomon playing his violin and approached him claiming to work for a traveling circus. They proceeded to offer Northup a job providing musical entertainment for the circus at the rate of $1 a day and $3 for each performance. The two men informed him that they would need to travel to Washington D.C., where the circus currently was located but that they would then be traveling back north. Believing he would only be away from home for a short period of time, Solomon did not notify his family that he was leaving. Little did he know that this trip would mark the beginning of the twelve longest years of his life.
Even though Solomon was a free black man, Washington D.C. in 1841 was a place where slavery was legal. Free blacks traveling through areas where slavery was legal needed to furnish papers certifying their free status or face the possibility of being accused of being a runaway slave. Thus, before Solomon and his new companions left the state to begin their trip to Washington D.C., he secured papers declaring his status as a free black citizen of New York. Unfortunately, these papers would not be able to protect Solomon once he reached the nation’s capital.
Ejiofor? In a lead role? Fuck yes, that man is great stuff. Very VERY underrepresented as a lead actor. Love his work and just his..presence. Very good actor.
Also...Yay for Cumberbatch and Fassbender(!). Took me off guard seeing Pitt cast in this.
I'm fucking game for McQueen/Fassbender 3.
Benedict Cumberbatch, star of PBS skein "Sherlock," is set to join the cast of New Regency's "12 Years a Slave."
Steve McQueen is directing the pic starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender and Brad Pitt.
Based on Solomon Northrup's 1853 nonfiction tome, New Regency pic stars Ejiofor as the author, a free man kidnapped and sold into slavery. Cumberbatch will play a plantation owner who buys Ejiofor's character and is won over by his engineering skills.
McQueen co-wrote the script with John Ridley ("Red Tails"). Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner will produce for Plan B.
In 1841, while working in Saratoga Springs, New York, Solomon met two white men named Merrill Brown and Abram Hamilton. The men overheard Solomon playing his violin and approached him claiming to work for a traveling circus. They proceeded to offer Northup a job providing musical entertainment for the circus at the rate of $1 a day and $3 for each performance. The two men informed him that they would need to travel to Washington D.C., where the circus currently was located but that they would then be traveling back north. Believing he would only be away from home for a short period of time, Solomon did not notify his family that he was leaving. Little did he know that this trip would mark the beginning of the twelve longest years of his life.
Even though Solomon was a free black man, Washington D.C. in 1841 was a place where slavery was legal. Free blacks traveling through areas where slavery was legal needed to furnish papers certifying their free status or face the possibility of being accused of being a runaway slave. Thus, before Solomon and his new companions left the state to begin their trip to Washington D.C., he secured papers declaring his status as a free black citizen of New York. Unfortunately, these papers would not be able to protect Solomon once he reached the nation’s capital.
Ejiofor? In a lead role? Fuck yes, that man is great stuff. Very VERY underrepresented as a lead actor. Love his work and just his..presence. Very good actor.
Also...Yay for Cumberbatch and Fassbender(!). Took me off guard seeing Pitt cast in this.
I'm fucking game for McQueen/Fassbender 3.