Jessica
Contrary to rumours he may have decided to cut back on his in-office hours, Brad Pitt is showing no signs of slowing down whatsoever career wise. On top of yesterday’s news that he’ll be starring in James Gray’s upcoming drama ”The Gray Man”, the actor will now put on his producer hat once again and produce the film ”Twelve Years a Slave”, an autobiography written in 1853 by Solomon Northup, a free black man who became enslaved.
Brad will produce the film with his Plan B production company and Steve McQueen (director of 2008′s ”Hunger”) will direct according to THR.
Chiwetel Ejiofor, the British actor who has appeared in movies such as ”Salt” and ”Inside Man”, is attached to the part of Northup. McQueen co-wrote the script with John Ridley.
The article continues by noting that Northup was a married and educated free black man living in New York when two men approached him with a job offer in Washington. When he showed up in D.C., he was kidnapped and put in a slave pen, paving the way to his grueling life under numerous owners.
The book is studied for everything from its details of the slave markets that existed in D.C. to the type of food served to slaves.
Northup was able to secure his freedom when a white carpenter from Canada, who didn’t believe in slavery, was able to smuggle out letters to Northup’s wife, initiating a court case that saw him set free.
