2008 hunger 006 Steve McQueen To Team With Chiwetel Ejiofor For Twelve Years A Slave

Variety bring word that Steve McQueen (Hunger, Shame) will team with Chiwetel Ejiofor for an adaptation of Solomon Northrup’s autobiography of the same name ‘Twelve Years A Slave.’ Written in 1853, the autobiography tells the true story of Solomon Northrup, a New York citizen who was kidnapped in Washington in 1841 and rescued from a cotton plantation in Louisiana in 1853. McQueen co-wrote the adaptation with John Ridley (Red Tails) and will produce through Brad Pitt’s company, Plan B. Ejiofor, one of my favourite actors working today, will portray Northrup. Check out the synopsis for the book below.

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.