Steve McQueen continues to gather his cast for true-life abduction tale Twelve Years A Slave. Just last week he added Benedict Cumberbatch to the swelling ranks and now the parade of excellent actors continues with Paul Giamatti, Sarah Paulson and Garret Dillahunt.
The main crux of the story is Chiwetel Ejiofor's Solomon Northrup, a free black man living in 1840s New York who is promised a job with a circus in Washington. Upon his arrival, however, he’s assaulted and sold into slavery. He spends the titular time period working on various plantations until he manages to sneak a message out to his wife, who arranges for his rescue from Louisiana.
Brad Pitt, Scoot McNairy, Ruth Negga and McQueen regular Michael Fassbender are aboard, though their roles have yet to be revealed. Paul Dano and Taran Killam are on as slave owners.
Paulson will be playing Fassbender’s wife, said to be the jealous type, while Giamatti is the ironically named Freeman who takes possession of Northrup and his fellow slaves when they arrive in New Orleans. Dillahunt will be Armsby, a field hand who works alongside Northup.
Working from a script he co-wrote with John Ridley, McQueen will start filming shortly.