When British director gave an unknown Irish German actor called Michael Fassbender his break in Hunger the film about Bobby Sands the Irish Political activist and this January we will see him again in McQueen’s Shame which has been lapping up some good reviews in recent festival screenings. According to Variety who are reporting the pair will be working again on 12 Years A Slave with Chiwetel Ejiofor based on autobiography of Solomon Northrup a free black man who was kidnapped in New York taken to Louisiana in the deep south enslaved and forced to work for 12 years. No word on Fassbender’s role but its now assumed he may play the role as the slavemaster, but as the pairs relationship is very fruitful his trust to play an evil slaveowner he will do with great passion and integrity.
McQueen has co-written the script for this upcoming film with John Ridley his writing partner from Hunger marking his return to true life drama, a film which is due to start production early 2012.
Synopsis:Twelve Years a Slave is the story of Solomon Northup, a free black man and resident of New York, who was kidnapped in 1841and sold into slavery. He was rescued in 1853 after spending 12 years as a slave. Northup tells the story of how two men approached him under the guise of circus promoters who were interested in his violin skills. They offered him a generous but fair amount of money to work for their circus, and then offered to put him up in a hotel in Washington D.C. Upon arriving he was drugged, bound, and moved to a slave pen in the city. He is sold as a slave and spent 12 years working on farms in the South. It is not until a white carpenter from Canada, Samuel Bass, arrives at the farm on which Northup works that he reveals his past of a free man. Bass would deliver letters to Northup’s wife that would start the legal process of earning Northup his freedom. This classic of American history sheds light on slavery and the life of slaves in the mid 19th century.
