After Hunger and Shame, director Steve McQueen is keeping with the serious themes but going period drama for his next film, 12 Years A Slave. The movie already has Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt and Paul Dano attached to roles, and now they’ve been joined by Benedict Cumberbatch, according to Variety.
The project is based on the true story of Solomon Northrup (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a free black man in the mid-19th Century who was kidnapped in Washington and sold into slavery. He was rescued from a Louisiana cotton plantation in 1853. Cumberbatch is set to play a plantation owner who forms more of a bond with Northrup after buying him and becoming impressed by his engineering skills.
McQueen is directing 12 Years a Slave from a screenplay he co-wrote with John Ridley. The shoot starts in June in New Orleans.
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