Despite the acclaim for his movie Hunger in 2008, Steve McQueen has had difficulty putting other movies together, largely because he’s still interested in tackling complex, serious subjects, rather than going down the mainstream route, and funding has dried up for that sort of film. He’s managed to make Shame, which will be out later this year, and it appears a new venture called 12 Years A Slave is coming together well too. It probably doesn’t hurt that Brad Pitt has agreed to produce, who’s certainly a name that’ll draw in funding.
According to Variety, Chiwetel Ejiofor will play the lead role in 12 Years a Slave, which is based on the true story Solomon Northrup, a New York resident who, despite being a free black man, was kidnapped in Washington DC in 1841 and turned into a slave. He was eventually rescued from a Louisiana cotton plantation in 1853.
Steve McQueen will direct from a script he co-wrote with John Ridley (Red Tails). It is said that Steve McQueen has been developing this drama for several years. It’s the sort of subject that everyone agrees should be dealt with more on film, but which often has difficult finding cash (several civil rights movies have had to be delayed or cancelled this year, due to that problem – although the success of The Help will probably make it easier for those films). Brad Pitt’s involvement should help on that front though.