You know it’s late summer when the trailers for dramatic films start trickling out. Today, thanks to FirstShowing.net, we’ve got the trailer for Hunger and Shame director Steve McQueen’s latest, 12 Years a Slave. Telling the true story of Solomon Northup (the always-fantastic Chiwetel Ejiofor), a free black man who is kidnapped and sold into slavery. (Before clicking “Play,” the faint of heart among you may want to be assured that this green band trailer doesn’t show anything particularly hard to look at.)
Alongside Ejiofor are is an amazing cast: McQueen mainstay Michael Fassbender, Paul Giamatti, Paul Dano, Benedict Cumberbatch, Alfre Woodard, Michael Kenneth Williams, Sarah Paulson, and Brad Pitt. McQueen directs from a script by John Ridley. The film hits US theaters in October.
That cast is ridiculous – it reads like some sort of fantasy get together from the parts of the Internet I hang out at.
It was required reading for a class in college. The book has stuck with me, even though the title of the class I had to read it for is long gone. I can’t wait to see this film treatment of it.
A friend noted to me yesterday that somehow, inexplicably, Alfre Woodward has only been nominated for an Oscar once. Let’s hope this changes that.